We visit Van Rysel’s new showroom to check out the range
Van Rysel has unveiled its first flagship store in Canada Water, London, as part of its ambition to become “one of the top five cycling brands in the world”.
Decathlon established Van Rysel as its premium road cycling brand in 2019. The new Van Rysel shop makes up a corner of Decathlon’s sprawling south London store, but it’s intended to offer more of a boutique experience than the rest of the warehouse-like premises.
Van Rysel’s shop is a sleek space. There are bikes arranged on a central mirrored display, a large screen showing images of its WorldTour team Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, and a welcome counter that references the sandstone shower blocks of the Paris–Roubaix velodrome – close to Van Rysel’s home in Lille, France.
The setup is intended to show Van Rysel’s ambition and the legitimacy of its bike range, from the men’s WorldTour race-winning RCR Pro to its more budget-friendly electric bikes.
Having headed to the new showroom for its opening, we take a look at four key bikes from the brand’s 2024 range.
Van Rysel RCR
The Van Rysel RCR Pro was officially launched last year – and caused quite a stir.
The road bike, now used by the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, was framed as a budget superbike. While its price of £9,000 is, clearly, expensive, that’s a few thousand pounds less than similar all-round race bikes, such as the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8.
The RCR is the less expensive version of the Pro, but it shares the same frame shape as its more expensive sibling.
Van Rysel developed the frame shape in collaboration with the French Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA), the French aerospace lab, based near Van Rysel’s headquarters.
At the shop opening, Yann Le Fraillec, Van Rysel’s chief product officer, explained there were 20 to 25 iterations of the RCR’s frame design.
Van Rysel says cross-sections of every tube were calculated to be as efficient as possible in typical wind angles of up to 15 degrees. Van Rysel also tested the bike across three of ONERA’s wind tunnels for data accuracy.
The RCR differs from the RCR Pro in terms of carbon fibre layup. The RCR Pro uses carbon fibres to make the bike stiffer than the regular RCR in high-stress areas, such as the head tube.
The RCR frameset is also 40g heavier than the Pro at 830g (size medium, painted).
The complete RCR we saw at the Van Rysel shop is built with a SRAM Rival groupset, Zipp 303s wheels, a Fizik saddle and a two-piece cockpit. It is said to weigh 8.1kg.
This RCR is half the cost of the RCR Pro, at £4,500.
Van Rysel XCR
The XCR is Van Rysel’s time trial bike. It features oversized, truncated aerofoil tubes, a bladed front fork and a cockpit that integrates with the top tube.
While the RCR Pro was developed with ONERA, the XCR was designed with Swiss Side, the aerodynamics experts.
Swiss Side’s experience with Formula 1 cars is said to have filtered into the bike’s design.
The involvement of Swiss Side is also why the XCR seen here is complete with the brand’s Hadron 800 road wheels.
Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale uses this bike in the WorldTour already, but the finer details – including aerodynamics data – are still scant.
Van Rysel NCR CF
Like the RCR, the NCR CF is part of Van Rysel’s race range, but the brand describes it as its “most all-round bike”.
If the RCR is Van Rysel’s pro-level machine, the NCR should have a broader appeal.
The NCR’s geometry is slightly more relaxed than the RCR’s. Its wheelbase is 13cm longer and its top tube is 1.5cm shorter in a size medium. It also has a slightly higher stack at 548.3cm compared to the RCR’s stack of 546cm, also in a size medium.
Van Rysel says the bike has a sporty character for performance-oriented cyclists, but that it’s still suitable for relative beginners and those wanting to start competing from a young age, with sizes from XXS.
Its 35mm tyre clearance is 2mm wider than the RCR and Van Rysel says it can take on terrain from mountains to cobbles.
This NCR CF is built with Fulcrum Racing 700 DB wheels shod in 28mm Hutchinson tyres, a mechanical Shimano 105 groupset, and Van Rysel’s own-brand aluminium stem and handlebar. It costs £2,000.
Van Rysel says the carbon fibre frameset weighs 1,613g in a size medium. The complete bike is said to weigh 8.75kg.
Van Rysel E-EDR AF
Away from its racing bikes, Van Rysel also has an endurance electric road bike called the E-EDR AF, which retails for £2,300.
Announced in January this year, the E-EDR AF looks a lot like a non-electric road bike. The electric bike battery is hidden in the slender down tube and the wide-ranging cassette obscures the rear-hub motor.
The Mahle X35 electric bike motor has 40Nm of torque and three assistance modes. It is powered by a 250Wh battery, which is claimed to provide up to 100km of range. You can also use an external battery to extend the range of the bike.
Elsewhere, there is a BC900 bike computer, which Van Rysel says has been designed specifically for the E-EDR AF. The computer will alert you to how much range you have left and your assistance level.
If you don’t want to use the bike computer, you can connect your phone to the Mahle X35 system via ANT+ and Bluetooth.
The E-EDR AF has an aluminium frame and a carbon fork, which helps keep the claimed weight down to 14kg.
The fork also features rack mounts on each side.
This build features a SRAM Apex electronic drivetrain with a 1x drivetrain and 12 gears, along with hydraulic disc brakes.
