>>1138323Acknowledging you're self-identifying as a 'beginner': Anything other than drop bars is 'filthy casual/commuter' tier. Drop bars give you three basic hand positions when riding: tops, hoods, and drops.
For a longer ride, having more places to put your hands is a good thing, helps you manage hand/arm/shoulder fatigue.
You can't sprint properly without drop bars.
If you want to descend at high speed, you need drop bars, so you can get your body as low as possible, mainly to lower the center of gravity of the bike, but secondarily to improve your overall aerodynamics.
You also need the drops position for your hands for hard efforts on the flat or climbing.
Riding on the hoods is the default cruising position for hands that most riders prefer, since it's comfortable, yet keeps access to all the controls at your fingertips.
A word about controls (brakes and shifting) with drop bars versus flat or other types of bars:
With drop bars, you have brake levers that are also your derailleur controls. In the drops, or on the hoods of the 'brifters', you have all controls at your fingertips. Not only is this convenient and efficient, it's safer; you never have to take a hand off the bars to shift or brake. On a high speed descent, or in the middle of a large, tightly-packed, fast-moving group, being able to keep both hands on the bars can make the difference between staying upright or crashing.
