A Bike That's Truly a Giant

With the Tour de France under way, Team High Road (the “clean” team) will be cranking out of the gates on a ride as revolu­tionary as rocking the yellow jersey without a bunch of needle marks showing. They’ll pedal the TCR Advanced SL Team prototype, a frame cooked up by Giant’s in-house composite lab from a new carbon fiber just declassi­fied by the Chinese military. The hand-built design features a squared-away downtube that provides an extra-stiff ride for better power transfer; the next-gen frame, starting with a single spool of thread, keeps weight to an ultralight 15.4 pounds. You like? Start saving. When it hits stores in late summer, it’ll set you back six grand.