Cyclocross, like work, fascinates me; I could watch it all day. Getting me to participate in it though, no chance. There’ve been many failed attempts by all manner of folk to convince me that sliding around in mud on skinny tyres and drop bars in winter is somehow going to change my life for the better, and while I see the strange hold it has over these folk whose opinions I inherently respect, there’s just something wired within me that puts up barriers that in no way am I prepared to dismount for and portage over.

My go-to excuse has always been “I don’t have the proper bike” which is always rejected outright as piss-poor. And now that there’s a more-than-fit-for-purpose Scott Addict CX 20 at my disposal, that defence can no longer be put forward. But what has really piqued my interest of late is the act of riding long distances on unsealed roads on what is essentially a beefed-up road bike… I don’t want to say it, but I guess I’ll have to at some point… a ‘gravel grinder’. Ughh. So this bike has me excited for that aspect of riding, if not persuading me to slide down a grassy bank on a Sunday. Not just yet anyway, but stranger things have happened. Like using the term gravel grinder.

The Addict CX 20 sits near the top end of Scott’s ‘cross range, and is the cheaper carbon framed model, using a slightly less tweaked carbon lay-up for a tad more weight and a spec that brings it in at a more reasonable price point than the fully-blinged CX 10. The drivetrain is a solid mix of Shimano components which you know will get the job done, including the FC-RS500 crankset with forged solid arms and a ‘cross standard set of 46/36 chainrings. For racing this seems to be the way to go, though I’d prefer a road compact 50/34 for the purpose of road and dirt riding. But that isn’t the target audience for this bike I suspect, and for most riders using it as intended it should be perfect.

Good old 105 derailleurs get the shifts done at the front and rear with typical workmanlike reliability.

More 105 out back providing a decent range from the 11-32 cassette and durable HG chain.

The hydraulic brake/shifter units look pretty bulky but don’t feel it in your hands, and the shape of the hoods seem pretty close to standard non-hydro units and take no time getting used to. Shallow drops on the Syncros alloy bars are comfortable and the tape is nicely padded which doesn’t hurt either.

There’s plenty of carbon real estate around the bottom bracket, as you’d expect for a bike whose rider will spend a lot of time mashing the cranks… at least for an hour at a time anyway. The BB unit is a Shimano press fit PF 86 with sealed cartridge bearings which hopefully will be impervious to the kind of crap that muddy fields, drainage ditches and whatever else sadistic course designers dream up.

The carbon HPX fork uses 15mm thru-axles with Syncros-branded DT Swiss RWS lever, one of the best and easiest to use systems out there. The disc caliper uses a flat mount and the rotor is a 160mm Centrelock unit with Ice-Tech, a nice and necessary spec.

A hint that this bike isn’t just a pure cross racer are the two sets of bottle cage mounts. That downtube is massive!

Shapely chainstays provide decent mud clearance and there’s plenty of fresh air behind the BB too. You can see how wide the BB86 is and how stiff that makes that area.

More slender stays for the seat and even more mud shedding space around the rear rubber…

Same great clearance up front too. The disc hose routing is pretty trick, but something tells me there may be a sealing grommet missing, or there’s going to be a bit of water and gunk making its way inside that for leg.

As our bike has been used by another tester, the brake lines came set up the wrong way around (for us, right way for them). No problem, the built in hydraulic hose breakers are easy to swap the lines to your preferred orientation without bleeding the brakes.

All internal routing for the derailleur cables and brake hose keeps things tidy and away from the elements, and the alloy guides are easily removed with a Torx bolt, making maintenance less of a pain in the ass than some internal routing can be.

No getting confused as to which cables and hoses go where.

Syncros provide the hoops with their RP2.0 alloy rims,  a decent 233mm internal width and 28 holes front and rear and DT stainless bladed spokes with Pro Lock nips… Dt also provide the hub internals with a Star Ratchet for the rear. The rims can be set up tubeless too with a bit of tape and sealant, something we’ll probably implement.

Schwalbe Rocket Ron treads look the goods for the mud at 33mm wide and fairly aggressive knobs.

A sturdy looking replaceable hanger will hopefully break before your frame, while still providing enough stiffness to keep the shifts crisp even when carrying half a football field around on the derailleur and cassette. Nice clean internal cable routing again there through the chainstay.

Flat mount, RWS 142 thru-axle, Centrelock rotors, smooth and sturdy looking dropouts. What’s not to love there…

Our 56cm Large frame has the bonus of fitting Patrick, who is one of those persistent people who keeps telling me to give cross racing a crack. I’m sure he’ll appreciate my gesture of giving him the bike to flog around the next Hüttcross course, while I try to bring myself to overcoming the resistance I’ve built up… meanwhile, there’s some gravel roads around here somewhere, surely.