Hi all! New biker here, looking to make a smart first-time purchase.

I’m leaning towards either a road bike with relaxed geometry, or a cylocross. $700-$1,100. I’ve Google’d to heck and back “cyclocross vs road bike” and feel I’m yet to find a solid answer. I’m posting this in the road bike forum because I feel like I’ve heard replies from commuters and CX’ers but not from you guys. The details:

Daily: commute within San Francisco. ~3 miles to and from work on bustly city streets.
Weekly: city errands (bike locked outside), bike to a friend’s house, etc
Monthly: 20 to 50 mile rides across the Golden Gate Bridge, up the headlands, maybe climb a mountain.

• How much better at doing the San Francisco urban-shred commute will the CX be over the RB - in reality for a novice?

• How much better at climbing headlands and mountains will the RB be over the CX - in reality for a novice? (stock tires and/or swapped to road tires)? And which facts attribute to this? (weight, geometry, tires, etc)

• As a novice would you rather have to commute in downtown SF on a roadbike so you get the better choice for a once-in-a-while weekend ride? Or would you rather commute in downtown SF on a CX but know that you’d have to use it for an every-so-often weekend ride?

• Should I just get a CX (if someone proves that it’s actually better for commuting) and then to simply rent a road bike for weekend trips (if someone proves it’s actually much better for challenging rides)?

Some options I’m eyeing:
RB: Felt Z95, Specialized Secteur, etc
CX: Specialized Tricross/Crux, Trek CrossRip, Kona Jake, etc