PhilDAS-
This route was more technical than any XC stuff I'd done in Oz so maybe. But at the same time, I finished on this bike without any mechanicals so it kinda proves that it worked. Maybe my hands would be a little less 'nervy' right now if I'd have used a hardtail but then on this setup I swapped hand positions a lot so that is an advantage over a flat bar. Lower gears for sure would've made some of the more rocky sections faster for me but I don't have enough experience with suspension to know if a suss fork would have helped me. 38cm bars definitely not great - spent a lot of time fighting the front end when it was being kicked around or getting loose on the sandy corners. Wider tyres may have helped but then they'd have possibly been slower on a bunch of sections and not necessary on a lot of the climbs.
Basically I dunno. I just don't have enough experience with MTBs to know what I could do with one. I could get too confident and stack it on the first descent too so maybe having a bike I was worried about (mostly the fucking tubeless tyres) made me ride stuff slower than I would have if I was on some kind of MTB with huge tyres. Nursing the bike a little might've helped my body too.
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hippy
Image was from https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehoi5xyXgAARM72?format=jpg&name=medium but Elongated Muskrat fucked that site up so I've attached it now (20240109)
Kinesis Tripster AT. It's basically the same setup as I used for TABR and TCR in 2018 but with 50mm GravelKings thrown onto my road wheels and flat pedals instead of Speedpray. No Di2 extension shifters since they were smashed off on the rear-ended version of this bike and I never replaced them. I wasn't in the aerobars much though, obviously.