Giant revamped the TCR range in 2015, introducing the new TCR Advanced SL ahead of the Tour de France, and then watched Simon Geschke put in the performance of a lifetime on it and earn a stage win in the Alps.
And as if that wasn’t enough of a glowing reference for their new machine, it was also the bike on which Tom Dumoulin so nearly grabbed what would have been an improbable victory at the Vuelta a Espana.
Giant-Alpecin’s riders already used the original TCR, of course, riding it to success on some of the biggest stages thanks to a winning marriage of performance and comfort coupled with the best stiffness-to-weight ratio in its class.
The new iteration of Giant’s climber’s bike is 12 per cent lighter than its predecessors in fact – without any compromise when it comes to that fabled stiffness.
In fact, the carbon TCR frame has been around since 2003 and the geometry for five years longer than that.
ONCE, T-Mobile and Rabobank all used incarnations of the iconic machine, and all achieved plenty of success on it before Giant-Alpecin gave the nod to this version.
The TCR Advanced SL is the latest and greatest reimagining of the bike and sits – as did its predecessor – as a lighter, more comfortable and compact alternative to the Propel, Giant’s aero road bike you’ll have seen under John Degenkolb and, until last winter, Marcel Kittel.
The new frame has been rebuilt from the ground up, with the finished product a lighter, torsionally stiffer frame and a lighter fork.
TCR means Total Compact Road; Giant were pioneers of the compact geometry whereby the toptube slopes from the headtube to the seattube to reduce the size of the front and rear triangles for a lighter, stiffer bike and the TCR is evidence of their pioneering work.
And the new iteration of Giant’s climber’s bike is 12 per cent lighter than its predecessors in fact – without any compromise when it comes to that fabled stiffness.
