I finally gave in, got myself a cross bike (can't wait to race this fall), and went for my first ride today around a local park.

I noticed my hands took quite a beating. Granted, the trail was somewhat rooty and I wore my full-fingered, un-padded mountain bike gloves, but I'm wondering if some squishier bar tape would be awesome?

Whats the consensus? Padded gloves? Squishy bar tape? Full finger or half gloves? HTFU?

Oh, and is there any real difference between cross wheels and road wheels? It seems to me that I could probably use the alex rims that came stock on my old trek 1.2 as some spare wheels.

Thanks for the inputs!