Hi, I’ve been riding a used 2010 Scott Speedster 30 for 10 years now and thinking I should upgrade before starting to tackle a couple 70.3s and eventually a full Ironman. I’ve done a handful of Olympic distance races, so the Scott has served me well. Also, I’m more of a runner so bikes are foreign to me as you can see from what I’ve been using for 10 years. Anyways, with all the bike shortages going around I can either get a 2022 Giant Contend AR 1 in Feb 2022 or wait until end-June 2022 to get a Giant TCR Advanced 2. I was hoping to do a 70.3 in Aug so I wasn’t sure that’d be enough time with the new bike or not if I waited to get the TCR Advanced. The Giant dealer said both can be fitted with clip-on aerobars. So my question is if I should wait and get the full carbon TCR or go with the Contend since I’ll be able to train longer on it?
Hey! Hope your race went well (or good luck if it’s later this month…:))
Your post hit my radar as I did a “Giant TCR Adanced” forum search as I’m leaning in the “Giant” direction. I had a used Defy from 2012 to 2018. Then I got a Scott Addict 30 in 2019. It got me through a couple of IM’s - but definitely want to get something faster. Did you end up going with either of your two choices? I’m just looking for feedback either way.
Thanks!
Chris
Hi, a friend of mine convinced me to get a tri bike instead because he said the giant bikes I were looking at weren’t really big improvements from my old Scott road bike. I ended up finding a sweet deal on a 2020 Cervelo P2 and what a difference it made. I trained for an IM70.3 all spring did my first one at the end of July in Maine. Crushed my bike goal by 20 minutes despite the +85F heat and was super fresh for the run. Overall I’m happy with the decision to get a tri bike and can’t wait to start training for a full IM. The tri bike was only marginally more expensive than the road bikes I was looking at but the gains were huge. My friend said, a tri bike is designed for triathlons so if that’s what you are doing then you should get one instead of trying to convert a road bike into one. Hope that helps!