Road With Larger Tires Or Cyclocross?

You situation sounds exactly like mine. I live on a farm and have a badly potholed and supposedly tarmacked road to the farm.

I have had no issues using my road bike with 700x25c tires to get to and from the farm onto better (I use the word hesitantly) roads.
I'm also a mountain biker and this I have found quite useful because the skills are transferable and you will find that it makes it easier.

You say you "want a bike that will encourage me to ride longer"? What is it about the Sirrus that makes you not want to ride it for more than 2hours and how do you think a cyclecross will help? Have you considered a road bike with drop bars?

I ask because I use my road bike quite happily for more than 2 hours (last summer I did my first 100 miler) and just accept that the start and end of my rides are slow and technical and in winter sometimes need to me get off my bike and walk sections. The rest of the time I can use the road bike just fine, but I can only leave the farm one way when I am on the road bike in winter. In summer, if it is dry enough there is another route I can use - but the bike must have good clearances around the wheels and I use 700x25c tires. I also have to accept that I have to clean my bike after each and every ride, and that is clean the bike and then clean the chain and oil it. It is the down side of living on farm at the end of a very muddy lane. The upsides outweigh this every time I write them down!

I do also have 2 other bikes I can use if I really want to (my mountain bike and my touring bike) but my mountain bike is for going out and getting muddy and is more a fun bike than a distance bike. My touring bike is for holidays, camping and carrying lots of kit. It is also an off-road touring bike which help, but it is around the same speed as my mountain bike.

Most comfort, er, excuse me, endurance, road bikes are now equipped with 25mm tires and will accept 28 as long as you don't use fenders. For larger tires look at bikes in the "recreational cyclocross"/"gravel racer" and light touring categories.

Really, you have to visit some shops and ask to see and test ride their offerings. Also use the search function on this site. We've covered this topic so many times I've been sounding like a broken record. Your requirements aren't unique and the bike companies have been responding to them for a couple of seasons now. For example, Raleigh's RX range, Trek's Crockett and 720, Bianchi's Volpe, etc., etc. They're around.

Thanks for the replies! I have been eyeing up a few leftovers from the bike shops. In the last 5 years, I haven't taken my sirrus in the gravel. Just thought it would be nice to do so. I recall a similar situation with my dirt bike. Have had dirt bikes for just dirt, a supermoto which is all road and the dual sports. You always sacrafice something with the ds.
With the sirrus, I have been pushing its limits based on what its engineered purpose is. I do some intense climbing on it and push it to the limits and it struggles. I have put stress cracks in it and the components are worn down. They cant handle some of the steep inclines I ride. I decided since I ride basically all road, a roadie is the way to go. Only a portion of the back of the farm is gravel and I've never ridden my bike to the lake to go on the boat. Making a decision off that is silly. Maybe someday I will look into a hard tail or fs.

I noticed today, the lbs dropped the price on a brand new leftover cannondale super six 5c all carbon, that I have been eyeing, on their website. Have read really great reviews on this bike and my friend loves his. It can accomodate a 28 tire I believe. Retail was $2550. Paid $1500 which is ideally what I wanted to spend. They will change out my tires to larger and they will include a tune up and look at the issues with my sirrus. I took it apart this winter to clean, grease and paint a few things. I put it back the same way and its just not right now. It had been grinding on me last year before I took it apart to try and fix it. Very frustrating.

I think they treated me fairly.

Have a deposit on it for now. Need to go back down and test ride it first! I didn't expect to buy one today haha but it seemed like a deal to jump on!