A new Van Rysel aero bike has been spotted at the Tour de France, ridden by riders on the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team.
Two of the squad's leaders, Sam Bennett and Felix Gall, are using the bike for the first time in competition on stage two of this year's race, which runs to Bologna and counts two ascents of the steep San Luca climb.
In the team paddock at the start of the day, Cycling Weekly spoke to one of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's mechanics, who said the riders had been training on the newly developed bike in recent weeks, and had been "very" impressed with it.
The bike is understood to be Van Rysel's unreleased FCR aero machine, as the initials written on the top tube indicate. It has a visibly sharper frame than the current RCR Pro, and a larger head tube, to help smooth the flow of air.
On the fork of Bennett's bike, the words ‘Aero24 Project - Sample 06’ are written. Each frame has a custom colourway, as the paint is applied via water transfer, dipping each frame into a solution.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale mechanic, Luis Lamas, said that Oliver Naesen had been training on the bike at home in Belgium, where he set a new best time on the Carrefour de l’Arbre, one of the key Paris-Roubaix sectors that the Belgian had crossed countless times before.
"After, he said, 'Can I have it at the Tour de France?'," Lamas said.
Van Rysel, an in-house brand of sports giant Decathlon, began building bikes for the WorldTour team at the start of the 2024 season, and was slated to "turn the market upside down".
The brand's top-spec RCR Pro offering is considered to be one of the cheapest premium bikes on the market at £9,000, and has been ridden by members of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale all season. Preorders for the bike sold out within minutes when they opened in April earlier this year.
"You can buy it – the same frame, the same components, the same wheels. This is what we consider a fair price for people to enjoy the thrill of speed," said Yann Le Fraillec, Van Rysel’s chief product officer, of the RCR Pro.
It is currently unknown when the newly spotted FCR will come to market. UCI rules stipulate that all tech used by pro riders has to be commercially available to everyone. Its price is also unknown.
