Giant TCR

The road bike that revolutionised frame design in the 1990s with its sloping top tube, and is still going strong

The 1990s signalled the end of steel as the dominant frame material in pro racing, making way for an era of experimentation. We saw oversized aluminium tubing, titanium bikes from Litespeed and plenty of innovation with carbon fibre – Lemond working with Calfee; Colnago and the momentous C40; and Mike Burrows with Lotus. Come the end of the decade, however, the bike that defined road cycling more than any other was the Giant TCR. It was 1997 when the Taiwanese firm introduced this low-slung. compact-frame design, which looked more like mountain bikes of the day with its angled top tube. The original concept came from the late, great British bike designer Mike Burrows. Burrows had a reputation for working outside of the orthodox, and saw the traditional two-triangle, horizontal top…

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Cycling Plus (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2025

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