{"id":64929,"date":"2024-06-03T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eba50682-72e1-4d9f-b5b7-f003e950430b"},"modified":"2024-06-03T16:25:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T14:25:32","slug":"inside-van-rysels-factory-how-the-challenger-brand-designs-builds-and-tests-its-bikes","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/rss_feed\/inside-van-rysels-factory-how-the-challenger-brand-designs-builds-and-tests-its-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Van Rysel’s factory: how the challenger brand designs, builds and tests its bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A look behind Decathlon\u2019s assembly line, testing and R&D facilities <\/p>

By Ashley Quinlan\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 03 June 2024 at 14:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Van Rysel has been making waves in 2024, there\u2019s no doubt about it.<\/p>

Decathlon, which owns the brand, began a three-year contract with WorldTour racing team AG2R La Mondiale (becoming Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale in the process) at the start of 2024.<\/p>

The partnership has already yielded considerable success \u2013 at the time of writing, the team has racked up 23 wins this season, including two stages at the Giro d\u2019Italia (and a fourth place overall), and sits second in the UCI World Rankings.<\/p>

Each one of those wins has been aboard a Van Rysel RCR Pro, the brand\u2019s all-rounder road racing bike. Although no win is down solely to the prowess of a bike, some credit is due to the brand, which hails from northern France, for supplying the tools the team needs to achieve success.<\/p>

This, of course, is against the backdrop of Decathlon\u2019s position in the cycling (and wider sports) industry.\u00a0<\/p>

Most prominent in continental Europe, the retail giant has a well-earned reputation for selling bikes and other sports equipment at competitive prices. <\/p>

The Van Rysel RCR Pro in its full pro team incarnation, for example, costs \u00a39,000 \/ $10,999 \/ \u20ac9,000, which compares favourably to an equivalently specced Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8<\/a> (\u00a312,000 \/ $14,000 \/ \u20ac14,000) or Cannondale Supersix Evo Lab71<\/a> (\u00a312,500 \/ $15,000 \/ \u20ac14,999). The trend continues with lower-specced models, too.<\/p>

In fact, of the mainstream brands, only Canyon matches Van Rysel for price competitiveness \u2013 but the German brand benefits from its direct-sales business model, while Van Rysel is sold through parent company Decathlon\u2019s stores (and in select specialist stores<\/a>).<\/p>

With the overheads involved in operating physical shops, it\u2019s common to equate cheaper prices with cutting corners \u2013 the general assumption that a brand can select a frame design from a catalogue then have it assembled and shipped over for sale is a tempting one.<\/p>

I recently accepted an invitation to tour Decathlon\u2019s BTwin Village in Lille, France, to see how Van Rysel builds and designs its bikes.\u00a0<\/p>

I discovered that \u2013 far from a stack-high, sell-cheap ethos \u2013 the brand is putting the building blocks in place for a sustained challenge to the status quo.<\/p>