2×11 on a drop bar cross bike, external cabling – standard sort of set up with two cable stops at the top of the down tube.

For the gears, do you run each one along the bars, round the front of the headtube, and then tuck it down into the stop?

Or, along the bars, but don’t run it across the front of the headtube, loop it back down the side of it and into the stop?

Is one better than the other? The first seems to give a better path, but means crossing over the cables. Either before the stop or the inners will need to cross on the downtube.

Around the headtube, and crossed under the downtube every time, smoother cable routing, less likely the outers will get kinked accidentally, and less likely to rub the paint on the headtube. The only thing going for the other method is a miniscule weight saving on cable outer.

Around the headtube and crossed is much better.

Cheers, crossed it is.