Originally Posted by
tjspiel
Don't disagree. I'll admit though that I'm oversimplifying. I'm not an expert on CX bike geometry. For awhile they had higher bottom brackets but I don't think that's the case anymore. They probably have shorter wheelbases than most people would like on a touring bike, but I'm only guessing. There's also a trend toward single chainrings.
My friend has a Specialized Tricross, which is kind of halfway between a Cyclocross bike and a Touring bike. The wheelbase is shorter than a touring bike, but definitely longer than a road bike. He could also totally do a CX race with it, though the top tube may be a bit low It does have a normal height bottom bracket, and he's done a tour with it. I didn't hear anything about his hitting the panniers.