Whilst nearly every other brand tries to smash 2 bikes into 1, Giant does what Giant does best… Stands firm, and improves all 3 road bikes, one-by-one.
My first Giant road bike was a 2019 Defy, then a 2021 TCR, a 2024 Propel, and now I’m back on the new 2025 TCR. I’ve loved every single one but the TCR is the most perfect of the 3 and I’ll tell you why…
All 3 models are now “up to date”. Internally routed, ridiculously light, aerodynamically optimised (relative to their objectives) and beautifully specced… Gone are those dodgy stem covers we loved to hate.
The Defy is the ‘King of Comfort’, the Propel, the ‘King of Speed’, and the TCR? Well, it’s the ‘King of…’ I don’t know really… nothing? It’s more like the Joker, or an UNO reverse card.
You can’t call it a climber because it’s as good, if not better, at descending. It’s not really a modern race bike, yet it navigates a peloton with ease, and eats crits for breakfast. It’s super aggressive, yet so brilliantly engineered that you can ride it, or race it, all. day. long… Trust me, I have.
The TCR is the king of turnaround. What it loses in aero to the Propel, it gains in stiffness and pickup. Where it lacks in comfort to the Defy, it makes up for in agility and balance.
It’s so difficult to explain to people because it’s all about feel. It’s like describing a smell, or a pain… you can’t, you just have to try it for yourself. It’s your mum’s roast, with a kick of horseradish. You know it, you love it, it feels like home.
It looks damn good and it will never not surprise you with just how good it is at, well, everything, all the time.
If I could, I’d have all 3, but I can’t. So I choose the rogue… the underdog… the weird middle child. A bike is only as good as its rider and nothing makes you feel as good as a TCR. That’s got to be worth at least 100 watts…
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