30 YEARS OUR GREATEST 30 BIKES FEATURING
01 Giant TCR
The most exciting chapter in the TCR’s long and illustrious history
YEAR LAUNCHED 1997
Giant’s TCR is arguably the single most important bike of the last 30 years, a staple that has influenced modern bike design perhaps more than any other since its debut in the early 1990s. The original concept of the TCR – Total Compact Road – has evolved but its frame is recognisable as a direct descendent.
The TCR was the brainchild of British bike designer and engineer Mike Burrows. Until the TCR, Burrows was most famous for the radical Lotus Type 108, which Chris Boardman powered to 1992 Olympic gold and the hour record, before it fell foul of the UCI.
The original aluminium TCR blazed a trail with its compact frame featuring a radically sloping top tube, which left much of the bladed aero seatpost visible. At first it only came in small, medium and large sizes, with different-length stems supposed to suit different riders’ fits, but the newest models come in five sizes (the smaller, compact frame is now also stiffer and lighter, and the seatpost more aerodynamic).
In 2000 the TCR gained a threadless headset – one of the unsung heroes of the last 30 years – that shed weight and added front-end stiffness. The next big leap was the TCR Composite, the first full-carbon TCR that debuted at the 2002 Tour de France, ONCE’s Joseba Beloki taking second behind the now-scratched-from-the-records Lance Armstrong.
The newest models now inevitably feature disc brakes and electronic gearing, two of the biggest developments in recent decades, but the then-rim-braked version won our Bike of the Year in 2018. It has also been ridden by teams such as Sunweb and pro riders including Mark Cavendish and Marianne Vos.
Giant’s TCR is a staple that has influenced modern bike design perhaps more than any other since its debut in the 1990s
02 Specialized Tricross
Specialized peered longingly into its gravel crystal ball…
YEAR LAUNCHED 2006
Specialized has a bit of a knack of seeing potential niches within the world of bike design. The 2006 launch of its Tricross – part of its ‘Freeroad’ range – predates the birth of the gravel bike by a good few years, but it offers much of the versatility of today’s gravel efforts. It blended perfectly cyclo-cross handling and the practicality of a touring bike for a machine that was great for commuters. The Tricross holds its own on the road, isn’t fazed by the occasional jaunt on towpath or byways, and it has the bonus that you can tracks and load it with panniers, making it both a fun and a practical ride.
The launch of the Tricross predates the birth of the gravel bike by a good few years
03 Trek Madone
Even ‘the Texan’ couldn’t lance this model’s ground-breaking reputation
YEAR LAUNCHED 2003
Trek made its first carbon fibre road bike in 1992 and the brand will forever be synonymous with the Voldemort – the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – of the cycling world, Lance Armstrong. All of his now-deleted Tour de France victories were achieved on Trek bikes, with his final two – 2004 and 2005 – on Madones, a bike Trek launched in 2003. Realistically the Madone didn’t di er that much from its Trek 5900 predecessor that Armstrong rode in 2003. And in one way, it was even a step backwards, as the 2004 Madone on which Armstrong rode every stage featured a frame that had increased from 980g to 1100g. But that was down to the UCI’s new minimum weight limit.
In 2007, the Madone lost its horizontal
