WINNER Giant TCX ADVANCED PRO 2 › Giant performance...
With a broad spread of prices and specs, you’d expect the result to be largely dictated by cost, but thankfully, the interpretations of what makes a good cyclo-cross bike aren’t as simple as that.
Both of the sub-£1900 bikes suffer from having less than willing wheelsets and fairly high weight, but the CruX and Mares share decent drivetrains, good frames and wellsorted off-road handling. They’re ripe for future upgrades, but are left lagging a little in this company.
Tying for joint third place are Trek’s Crockett and Boardman’s CXR 9.2. These came close to challenging for top honours. The Crockett has the best component spec of all, with SRAM’s Force 1 driving a good wheelset, and based around a beautifully-crafted aluminium frame and IsoSpeed fork, that offer extra versatility with its adjustable rear dropouts. Boardman’s CXR 9.2 was thrown in at the deep end of a muddy ’cross race, performed very well, and emerged ready to do battle again. Its brilliant component spec, wide, grippy tubeless tyres and predictable handling make it a very tempting choice for racers.
Keeping things tight at the top, the SuperX and TCX both have pro- quality framesets with race-winning pedigree and the sort of performance potential that most of us will rarely unlock. Cannondale’s SuperX Apex trims a few component corners to bring that stellar frameset in for this price, and despite a little extra mass, and less than racy wheels, still feels fast, agile and utterly composed.
With the most balanced overall package, Giant has done it again with the TCX Advanced Pro 2. SRAM’s Rival 1 groupset doesn’t give away much to Force 1, and the TCX frameset has endlessly accessible performance, with the tubeless wheelset enhancing its superb ride quality and precision on any terrain.