2021 Giant Tcr Lightweight Carbon Road Bike Is Ready To Get Back To Racing

When the first arrived in the pro peloton more than 20 years ago, it was surrounded by controversy. Now Giant have released the 9th generation of the TCR, the 2021 model range. It’s basically that the lightest bikes get 4 stars, other road bikes get 3 stars, and TT bikes and MTBs get 1 star.

The TCR Advanced delivers on all three, making it a versatile performer for competitive road riders. The Advanced-grade composite frame manages to shave every gram possible, while retaining pedal-stomping stiffness. The OverDrive steerer system and MegaDrive downtube are engineered for the precise handling so you can rail corners at speed.

All that talk sure is nice, but the reason Giant gets the road bike of the year award is the ride itself. The TCR feels laser-focused in tight corners, and it feels stable and confident in wide, high-speed sweepers. More importantly, the focused handling makes it a blast to ride. The only other bike that came close to unseating the TCR Advanced for road bike of the year is the Specialized S-Works Aethos, which is equally fun to ride.

Thanks to this owner can change the bar and stem more easily than the full integrated and most of the time proprietary parts. I want to warn you this post is about the technical review as I don’t want people to waste their time here. You will not find actual pictures or glamorous videos road test of the Giant TCR on this page.

With its proven Compact Road geometry and OverDrive 2 front end, it has the best stiffness-to-weight ratio of any road bike in its class. Our tubeless WheelSystem delivers speed and efficiency with a smoother ride and a reduced risk of flats. Add in the efficiency and compliance of its Variant seatpost, and you get race-tuned road performance that can’t be beat. Reengineered with updated aerodynamic tube shaping in the headtube, downtube and fork, plus added clearance for larger diameter tires , the new TCR Advanced Disc delivers outstanding on-the-road efficiency.

We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.

We’ve reviewed it very favourably elsewhere so we’ll leave it at that. As is also standard, there’s the 52/36 chainset and cassette that give all the range you need for the majority of road riding. Giant has the Propel as its aero bike and the TCR as the lightweight all-rounder but, as with Scott’s Addict and Foil, the two are edging closer together with the TCR adopting the tube profiles and integration of its slipperier stablemate. Ascending on the TCR is a joy too, the efficiency in the chassis is stunning and running on some seriously light rolling wheels all adds up to a bike that wants to go uphill with as much vigour and enthusiasm as you can muster.

giant tcr

He’s written for Pez since 2003 and has covered everything from Readers’ Rigs to race chasing and product tests. The addition of disc brakes gives the bike a premium feel, with a 22-speed drivetrain providing speed. So, speed, reliability, comfort, and confidence descending and ascending. The giant ROAD BIKES Advanced SL frame is designed for racing and it is the one used by Team CCC. If you are young and aiming at racing, it is a great quality and performance frame. But if you are not aiming at racing, I recommend picking a frame with longer chainstays than 405mm. It is good to see Giant lowering the BB height of its 2021 Giant TCR frame geometry.

Somewhat surprisingly for a company with Giant’s resources, though, the same fork rake is still shared across the entire size range. In terms of absolute stiffness, the new TCR frame loses a slight bit of ground over its predecessor, although given where that bike already was, that’s not much of a criticism. According to Giant, the old bike posted a bottom bracket deflection of 71.09 N/mm, while the new one measures 70.96 N/mm.