We spotted a new Giant Propel at the 2022 Tour de France team presentation, which took place yesterday.
Pictures of Team BikeExchange-Jayco at the presentation show the new bike retains the horizontal top tube and integrated seatpost of the previous version. However, it appears this new version is more aero at the front and lightweight at the back.
Giant appears to be making the new Propel an all-round race bike. This follows a trend of brands favouring aero-optimised designs for all terrains rather than splitting their fleet into climbing bikes and aero road bikes.
Just think of the Specialized Tarmac SL7 assuming the now-discontinued Venge’s responsibilities or Team Ineos riding the Pinarello Dogma F for all road stages.
Elsewhere, it appears there is a new stem, bar and cable-routing engagement.
We’ve got a team of eagle-eyed newshounds on the ground at the Grand Départ in Copenhagen. They’ll be prowling the pits for the next few days trying to catch a clearer glimpse of the bike but, in the meantime, here’s everything we know about the new Giant Propel.
A new all-rounder?
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The Giant Propel first appeared in 2012 before it was officially launched in 2013.
Typical of aero bikes at the time, the original Propel had proprietary V-brakes hidden behind the fork and seatstays.
Other than shifting to disc brakes with the 2018 Giant Propel Advanced Disc, not much has changed from the original silhouette of the bike.
This new version suggests Giant is retaining a similar silhouette but turning the Propel into more of an all-round race bike.
The horizontal top tube remains and appears to be Giant’s approach to aero-optimisation. This is different to the sloping top tube of the Giant TCR climbing bike, but it is also at odds with what other brands are doing when it comes to aerodynamics.
The new Cannondale SuperSlice time trial bike we spotted as part of the Rapha x Palace collaboration has a sloping top tube. To a lesser extent, the new Scott Foil RC has a sloping top tube, too.
Giant seems to have revised the front end of the bike to make it more aerodynamic. The rear section of the head tube has a more vertical section than its predecessor, presumably to create an aerodynamic effect, as on Kammtail tube profiles.
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Our team on the ground have also confirmed the rear end of the bike has been redesigned.
The seatstays are now dropped, joining the seat tube – which no longer has a cutaway – about a quarter of the way down from the seat clamp. They are also slimmer overall, further hinting at the bike’s revised all-rounder agenda.
The seat cluster has also been slimmed down, with material removed from the inside of the top tube and seat tube join.
Is this actually a new Giant Propel?
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There are few details and no official word from Giant on the new Propel.
However, a new Giant Propel Advanced and Giant Propel Advanced SL were added to the UCI’s list of approved bikes and forks in June.
The two Propel entries on the list also come with the prefix ‘MY23’. This is a naming convention used by Giant to indicate the ‘model year’ of a bike. So MY23 will mean these bikes are the 2023 Giant Propel Advanced and Advanced SL.
It also makes sense to see Giant move in this direction. The days of super-aggressive aero bikes are, by-and-large, over. And while the TCR was once an influential bike, pioneering sloping top tubes, its external cable routing and scant aero features means it is now more retro than revolutionary.
This new Propel could fill the conspicuous modern race-bike shaped hole in Giant’s current line-up.