I am not a technical expert at all - the numbers of the gears and stuff is quite mystifying to me.. but I started out on a roadbike triple and have just changed to a new bike with a compact. The compact pretty much covers the same range of gear ratios as the triple on my bike - but covers that range in 20 gears (it;s a 10 speed compact double) rather than 27 gears on my 9 speed triple.

Obviously seeing as the same total range is covered, it follows that there is less room for being in slightly the wrong gear as there was of course more 'overlap' and the gears were 'closer together' when I had 27 gears covering the same range, so it is taking some getting used to to make sure I am in exactly the right gear - the compact double is less forgiving like that.

That being said, I think I would personally go for the bike with the best 'fit' - the GT obviously stood out from the others in that regard - you can always change your rear cassette (cogs) pretty cheaply to effectively give you more of a granny gear if you find you need that - you can;t really do much about a not-so-good bike fit..

Ask the guys in the LBS what the rear cassette numbers are - try and met one that is 11-28 or 12-28 - the bigger the last number, the more 'granny' a gear you can select. A 12-25 with a compact double MIGHT be a little lacking at the granny end-- but the rear cassettes ARE cheap to swap out if the standard is something like 12-25 and you find you need a 11-28 or 12-28.

Like I said, I am not a technical expert, but it sounds like the GTR is waiting for you to go get her :-)