It wasn’t or you weren’t? Distinguish between the two.
…..
What I’m trying to say is my decision would have been the opposite of bails, although of course, its not about the bike….
At that point I was doing a 35 mile round trip commute 3 times per week and for the same perceived effort each leg took about 2 minutes longer on the CX. It was also a lot stiffer and more ‘secure’feeling that the road bike.
It wasn’t a choice between buying one or the other. I had them both at the same time, planning on keeping the Ribble for summer and the CX for winter, but I preferred the CX and the loss of speed was so minimal as to not make any difference to me, so I sold the Ribble.
If the OP wants a fair weather bike and wants to get into racing then I probably wouldn’t suggest a CX. But as something just to get out on and put some miles in while the trails are a mess, I reckon it’s a good bet.
Edit: I flipped the stem and put 25mm Conti GP4Seasons on mine to ‘roadify’ it. It would have been a lot slower with the nobblies on.