Unfortunately. We are having many weakness problems today because we inherited road sizing instead of bmx sizing. I don't know about the history and don't much care really (I am and opposite of a retro grouch...I find most older bikes downright ugly...living in the past keeps things there)...but I do know the 2 biggest problems in mountain biking today are caused by diameter sizing from road bikes.

Sweet pic though. Cyclocross has always intrigued me for xc. For most xc trails I have seen a cyclocross bike would smoke most mountain bikes, and actually recently there was a race on the north shore up fromme where guys showed up on cyclocross bikes. If the course designers hadn't diverted the course into more technical trails they would have beat everyone to the top for sure.