Zwift’s latest update includes a new frame from Giant, the TCR Advanced SL 2025. This update also renamed the game’s existing TCR Advanced SL to the “TCR Advanced SL 2021”, making it clear that this frame is the new version of Giant’s popular TCR Advanced SL road racing frame. Here’s what it looks like IRL:
On Zwift, you’ll need to be updated to game version 1.89+ to see the TCR Advanced SL 2025 in the Drop Shop. You’ll also need to be at level 25+ with 1,100,000 Drops to buy it. Here’s how it’s described in the Drop Shop:
“This 10th generation TCR builds on innovations of the bikes that came before it, achieving greater efficiency, improved aerodynamics, and more seamless integration to elevate the road riding experience. Much has changed in road bikes, but through it all the TCR has remained at the forefront of innovation. It’s a bike that has kept its focus on one core mission: to give riders a competitive edge.”
See our master list of all frames in Zwift >
It’s rated 3 stars for aero, 4 stars for weight, like a handful of other top frames with strong all-arounder performance. But a 4-star system isn’t the most granular of performance measurements, so we ran this frame through our precise tests to measure performance at nerd-level detail. Let’s dive in!
Note: test results below are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using Zwift’s stock 32mm Carbon wheelset on the un-upgraded version of the frame.
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Giant’s TCR Advanced SL 2025 is slippery, trimming 61.2s off our baseline Zwift Carbon frame over an hour of flat riding.
That puts it in the top 10% of all frames on Zwift, and within 1.8 seconds of the game’s fastest frame. Considering that our tests have a 1-second margin of error, one could reasonably lump this frame in with the other fastest frames in terms of performance on flat roads.
Climb Performance
The TCR Advanced SL 2025 is a strong climber, but not quite in the same league as the game’s top all-arounders. It shaves 44.7 seconds off of our baseline Zwift Carbon’s time on an hour-long climb, placing it in the 20% of all road frames on Zwift and 11.7 seconds behind the fastest climber (Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8).
Upgrading Your Giant TCR Advanced SL 2025
Like all frames in Zwift, Giant’s TCR Advanced SL 2025 can be upgraded in five stages. As a high-end race bike, each of the five stages results in a performance improvement. The TCR Advanced SL 2025 upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 200km, pay 100,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 260km, pay 200,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 320km, pay 350,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 380km, pay 500,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 440km, pay 750,000 Drops for a weight reduction
You can expect a fully-upgraded Giant TCR Advanced SL 2025 to be approximately 28 seconds faster on a flat hour and 36 seconds faster on an hour-long climb vs the “stock” Giant TCR Advanced SL 2025.
[adinserter block=”1″]
Conclusions
There are currently three top all-arounders on Zwift, and their unlock levels and Drops costs are high:
- Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 (level 40, 1,750,000 Drops)
- Cannondale SuperSix Evo LAB71 (level 40, 1,750,000 Drops)
- Pinarello Dogma F 2024 (level 40, 1,750,000 Drops)
Just below them, with essentially the same aero performance but slightly slower climb performance, you’ll find the Canyon Aeroad 2024 which unlocks at just level 10 and costs 1,100,000 Drops.
The Giant TCR Advanced SL 2025 is very comparable to the Canyon Aeroad 2024: same price, similar performance, and a lower unlock level (25+) than the top 3 frames. So we expect to see some beginning Zwifters purchasing this frame to race until they reach a level where they can purchase a top all-arounder.
While the new TCR’s performance won’t be compelling enough to cause racers to buy it en masse, some fans of Giant, including existing TCR Advanced SL owners, will surely add it to their garages. They may even buy it to replace the older TCR frame they already own, since the 2025 model performs much better, trimming ~35 seconds off our flat hour test and ~29 seconds off our climbing hour.
Questions or Comments?
What do you think of this new frame from Giant? Share below…
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
Thank you, Eric. I’m sticking with my Canyon Aeroad 2024 to fully upgrade.
3 star aero and 4 star climbing, yet 90th percentile on flat roads and 80th percentile uphill… make it make sense?!
The star rankings have never made sense. I honestly don’t know why Zwift even still uses them.
Interesting that a climbing bike performance is better compatibly on the flats then the mountains.
Been on the Pinarello now since I was able to purchase it and now halfway though the upgrade unlocks. Really don’t think it’s worth mucking about with anything else to be honest.
Same here, just getting the KMs and drops in to upgrade the flipping thing!!
Frames are way too CHEAP, they should be 5 times more expensive. People junk up their garage with everything going. I’m on level 73 and have like 4 frames total and now 11 million drops with nothing to spend them on. The upgrades idea is a good one, something to spend them on and you have to do the Km’s as well.
I would love Zwift to add the new Van Rysel bikes, RCR and RCR-F.
and Ribble Ultra race, thats a slippy bike!!
Hi Eric, very much appreciate your content. I was wondering if you have any analysis on how long either by duration or distance it takes to reach top speed for a sprint segment. Appreciate it will differ with gradient and power output and to a lesser extent bike. Been looking for this and can’t find any data. Many thanks
Is my 2021 fully upgraded 2021 TCR faster than a brand new (no-grade) 2025 model?