RAW POWER: OSCAR FREIRE AND GIANT TCR ADVANCED SL

It was an epic finish for Stage 6 of this year’s Tour de France, a wet sprint on rain-slickened tarmac. With more than a few wrecks on the slippery run-in to the finish, and a peloton tired and fatigued by a 100+ km chase that lasted nearly all day, just finishing in the lead group was a victory. And leading the way was 3-time world champion Oscar Freire, on his Giant TCR Advanced SL.

The lead group was seriously pared down, thanks to the extended chase and the trickiness of threading through rain-dampened Barcelona. With no teammates to support him, Freire—one of the savviest sprinters in the peloton—was forced to respond when Italian champion Filippo Pozzato launched early. And if not for Thor Hushovd, who latched onto Freire when he saw the move developing, it’s a move that would’ve put him on the top step for today’s stage.

Stage 6 was hard, one of those epic days that taxes riders and machines to the limit, but maybe less tough for Freire on his Giant TCR Advanced SL. Freire’s TCR Advanced SL features the OverDrive front end, with tapered steerer and oversize lower headset race for optimal torsional stiffness and the kind of perfect road feel that lets you feel your way through a wet technical finish; breakthrough Fusion Process manufacturing that saves more than 100 grams while providing incredible stiffness and a vertically compliant ride that reduces fatigue over a long chase; and PowerCore oversize bottom bracket and chainstays, for optimized power delivery over a long road stage or the closing meters of a sprint finish.

TCR Advanced SL might be an unfair advantage, but for the fact that it’s completely accessible technology. Rabobank’s incredible rides are production frames, completely identical to the meticulously hand crafted Giant TCR Advanced SLs for sale in bike shops all over the world.

It was an exciting day of racing, but there’s plenty more to go for Freire, team leader Denis Menchov and the rest of the Rabobank squad. And Giant will be with them all the way to Paris.