Originally Posted by cormacf

Given the same tires/wheels, does a longer/slacker geometry like you'd see in a gravel bike any slower than a classic road geo? I mean, clearly, there's an aero component, if one bike has you sitting closer to straight up, but aside from that, unless you're running a crit or something where tights turns are a huge part of your game, is there any reason a roadie should be faster than a gravel bike, over, say, the course of a century?

Personally, I have short femurs and a long gorilla torso, so my weight winds up pretty far forward on most bikes, and a gravelly long front-center and slack front end lets me descend faster without feeling like I'm gonna endo, but I just wonder if there's an objective tradeoff I'm missing.

Thanks!