This proprietary seatpost design offers an optimized balance of light weight, superior ride quality and simple adjustment to enhance the total race performance of the TCR road range. A recent addition to the Giant family for 2017 is the Contend – an entry-level alloy road bike that is engineered for all round performance. Available in either rim or disc braking options, the Contend is extremely compliant and easy to control, similar to the Defy in design and offers a smooth, fast and fun ride option.
On the flip side, the Giant has a power meter and better wheels, so it comes down to what you value most. With a 42mm rim depth front and rear, they came set up tubeless with Giant’s Cadex Road Race 25mm tyres, which again, are high end. As for the geometry and sizing, the M/L is a 56 in old money and has classic 73° parallel angles. Stack and reach are well judged and don’t present any fitting issues – a ratio of 1.43, which is about average for a race bike this size. The chainstays are short at 405mm compared to the standard 410mm, helping with responsiveness at the rear. The Giant TCR Advanced Pro 0 gets everything right – an impressive spec that includes a power meter and hookless carbon wheels, a low weight and best of all it rides beautifully.
In the process of developing the new TCR, Giant has refined its ‘advanced’ manufacturing processes to achieve a 765g claimed weight for the flagship 2021 TCR Advanced SL Disc frame. The TCR Advanced SL Disc is said to out-perform all three rivals on most counts , though this is based on Giant’s own giant mountain testing and, of course, against a very select number of bikes. The aerodynamic difference between the TCR and the Tarmac and R5 is also extremely small. A massive rectangular downtube and oversized toptube work in unison to provide superior front end lateral and torsional steering precision.
As much as I enjoyed the TCR Advanced SL 0’s superb chassis rigidity and low weight, though, the more noticeable change for me was the revised frame geometry. The top-tier TCR Advanced SL incorporates all of the engineering features mentioned earlier, and is understandably the lightest and most expensive of the trio. In the interest of all-out performance, Giant has built all TCR Advanced SL Disc framesets to work only with electronic drivetrains. Rim-brake models, however, will accept either electronic or mechanical groupsets.
This revolutionized the way many frames were manufactured, creating an extremely well balanced road option that is aerodynamic, lightweight and comfortable over a variety of terrain. The development of this style of frame geometry, a compact road frame with a smaller rear triangle and sloping top tube, was said to increase the stiffness of the frame and reduce weight, thus achieving a high stiffness to weight ratio. Even pure road bikes are being influenced by gravel-friendly trends nowadays.
Complementing the tubeless tires are the carbon 42 mm deep-dish rims, another upgrade from our recent bike. Migrating from box section aluminum rims, we were amazed at the stiffness of the TCRs tubeless system base. For stock carbon hoops, the Giant SLR1 rims respond to heavy acceleration and hard lateral demands. We occasionally grin at the sought-after echoing sound of rolling carbon wheels. The Variant seat post adds just enough compliance to give it a balanced, race-tuned feel on the road.
In direct comparison to its predecessor, GIANT claim that the new TCR 2021 is 34 seconds faster over a distance of 40 km when riding at 200 W. That’s a significant improvement and underlines the fact that aerodynamic features are finding a place on all new bikes. The TCR has always been the lightweight road bike in Giant’s range – now it has aero features for the first time. From front to back, the differed from the outgoing road bike once parked in the garage.