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With the 3x8 you have the mental load of making sure that you use the right combo of chain ring and sprocket at any given time.
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The 11-34 8 speed cassette has 11-13-15-17-20-23-26-34, but your 26 is best with the 23,26,34, the 36 with the 23,20,17,15, and the 46 with the 11,13,15. The range is ok, but you actually only have 10 usable gears. Conversely with my 2x11, the big ring works with all 11 gears, whilst the small ring is ok with the bottom 4 gears, Giving me 15 options. My di2 also offloads all of this processing...
I've never found the mental load all that great - I tend to treat the chainrings as broad categories.
When I used to have 8 speed (a couple of weeks ago) I probably used more than 4 gears in the middle and large chainrings too. Which seems like a fairer comparison than "is best with" vs "works with". But that's splitting hairs.
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And this is where I'm going to get all radical and start annoying people with my standard rant about the shitness of gearing on off the shelf bikes.
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I, for one, agree. Emulating pro racers doesn't really work for me.
My 8sp triple set up works thus 26t ring 30,26,23,20,17,15, 34t ring 30,26,23,20,17,15,13,11, 46t ring 17,15,13 and, downhill with a tail wind, 11. I have on one occasion had to take the fd out of play and the 34 ring was quite adequate to finish the ride although sub-optimal. I don't need a processor to tell me which gear I want to be in, my legs tell me that!
The way to improve the gearing options on ready built bikes in the shops is not to buy them. It's your money, make it work for you not some technofreek! The way to get what you want is to stop buying what you don't want! And tell the shops, the suppliers, the manufacturers what you think of their choices!
I was tempted by your challenge. I would happily do that circuit on my AW- but it won't be at audax speed and it most certainly wouldn't be in july, unless Holland and Belgium are an awful lot cooler than central France (july I finish riding at 10a.m.). I am not sure that I would do any 3000m 200 in the delays on any bike, regardless of transmission.
I would almost certainly risk falling over at silly slow speeds uphill. I think my cadence is below 60rpm uphill.