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This Brand Might Be About To Change Cycling Forever
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Jun 3, 2025
Van Rysel's partnership with French world tour team, AG2R-Decathlon -providing road bikes for the professionals to ride. These road bikes have been winning races at the highest level and this has started to raise some eyebrows. These bikes are some of the most affordable bikes in the pro-peloton so there are big questions being asked about what it means to have a bike with a race winning pedigree. In this video Sam Gupta takes the Van Rysel RCR and explores what Van Rysel's place in the market means for the entire cycling industry and more importantly, what it means for the consumers. This video was created in partnership with Van Rysel / Decathlon. AD.
View Video Transcript
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In the world of bikes, and more specifically, world-tour proven road race bikes, the world's
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cheapest and fastest are rarely heard in the same sentence. But the bike brand that I have
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underneath me might be about to change things forever. I am, of course, talking about Van
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Riesel. Cast your minds back to the end of 2023 and French pro team AG2R made a splash in the
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cycling press when they announced they would be partnering with Decathlon for 2024. At the same
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time they also announced they would be riding Decathlon's premium cycling brand Van Riesel
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Now this had some people scratching their heads as surely a more budget-orientated retailer like
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Decathlon wouldn't be able to match the likes of Pinarello and Colnago when it came to out-and-out
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performance in the World Tour. Well, if the 2024 road season is anything to go by, then it looks
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like Van Rysel and Decathlon have done just that. At the time of filming, the AG2R team have piloted
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their flagship Van Rysel RCRs to 26 victories at the highest level. But perhaps the most striking
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thing is that you can go into a shop and buy the exact same bike as the pros use for just £9,000
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Of course, £9,000 is far from cheap, but when you consider that Colnago and Pinarello's World
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Tour race bikes cost well north of £10,000, the RCR starts to look far more competitive
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on price. And cyclists bought into the hype, with the first batch of top-spec Van Rysel RCRs
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selling out within minutes when they went on sale in the UK. So it seems like competitive
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pricing and high-end performance can be offered at the same time but what could this mean for the
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entire bike industry? Well you'll have to watch to the end of the video to find out. Before that
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I going to tell you a little more about Van Riesel and why they are causing such a stir At this stage you may be wondering what Van Riesel is and where did they originate from
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Well, Van Riesel, which incidentally translates to made in Flanders, originated in 2019 and is
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Decathlon's premium bike brand. And while Van Riesel has only been in the World Tour since 2024
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Decathlon has a strong history of making bikes for professional teams such as Cofidis and AG2R
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Provoyance in the early 2000s. It's worth mentioning that Van Riesels aren't just rebranded
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from other Decathlon models. They're a whole new line with a dedicated team of engineers
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striving to make the best performance road bikes possible. The marketing speak is all well and good
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but why should you be excited about Van Riesel bikes? For me, I think there are four reasons
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Number one, it's just great to see a relatively new brand on the scene
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that isn't afraid to shake things up and put their money where their mouth is
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Sponsoring a world tour team is not cheap and it's a huge risk for any new brand
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So to see Decathlon AG2R teams doing so well aboard Van Rysel bikes
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well, you can only put a smile on your face. Number two, and you're going to be hearing this a lot throughout this video
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it's got to be the price. as we all know by now bikes are seriously expensive in this day and age and that isn't
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going to change anytime soon the fact that van risel are trying to offer something at a more
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competitive price can only be a good thing number three they're in it for the long haul decathlon
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and van risel have committed to a five-year partnership with ag2r so i'm pretty sure this
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won't be a flash in the pan thing brands making long-term commitments is great for the likes of
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you and me as the tech that the pros get eventually trickles down to the bikes we get to buy in
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the shops. And number four, it's teamed up with some very interesting partners, including the likes
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of Swiss side Deda Elementi and French Aerospace Research Laboratory Oneira Now Oneira is based around the corner from Van Riesel headquarters in Lille so I can imagine having such an amazing facility nearby will mean Van Rysel are in the best position possible
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to make good on their claim of making the fastest and cheapest bikes possible
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In terms of who I think should consider buying a Van Rysel bike, well in this video I'm riding
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the mid-range Van Rysel RCR which features SRAM's Force Axis groupset equipped with a power meter
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This is exactly the same frame shape and geometry as raced by the pros albeit with a marginally
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heavier carbon layup and we're only talking about a 40 gram difference which is barely noticeable
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Van Rysel says the RCR is in their lightweight aero category of bikes coming in at £5,000
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here in the UK. With this in mind I think a bike like this would be ideal for the amateur
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racer keen sportive rider or just someone who likes to go fast and doesn't want to break the
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bank it also features zip wheels and some pretty tasty michelin power cup tires so wouldn't need
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any upgrades to begin with there are different models if you're looking to spend less than five
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grand and as i've already mentioned there's the all singing all dancing pro replica model if you
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want to spend a little bit more all this to say if you're looking for a performance focused bike
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that's ready to ride or race straight out of the shop, then Van Riesel should have something to suit
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your budget. At this stage, you may be wondering how to actually go out and buy Van Riesel products
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As you'd expect, you can go over to the Decathlon website and find the bike I'm riding today
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along with other products from the Van Riesel range. It's available in a range of sizes
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and you can then arrange for it to be delivered to your closest Decathlon store
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where you can go and pick it up. Or if you're after a more bespoke retail experience
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then you can head over to Van Riesel's own concept store in London where you can access services like bike fits
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and hands experience with their full product range Finally let get onto what Van Riesel presence in the market
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means for the cycling industry and you, the viewers. As we're at such an early stage in
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the brand's development, I can only speculate for now. And things may change, but here are my
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takeaways. Number one, the fact that we have a world tour team racing and winning on what are
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perceived to be more affordable bikes can only be a good thing. We're often sold the idea that the
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most expensive product is the best, so it's refreshing to know that you can buy the same
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performance at a more competitive price. At the time of filming, AG2R Decathlon were ranked sixth
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out of 21 world tour teams. So I'd wager any concerns the riders had about racing bikes from
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Decathlon have long disappeared. Number two, in the future we may see more brands leading with the
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affordability of their top spec road bikes rather than their performance. Van Riesel created quite
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the buzz when they released the world's cheapest world tour bike and I'm sure that's one of the
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main reasons they sold out so quickly rather than any performance claims. And number three
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if Van Riesel continues to build on their success of selling high performance bikes
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at more affordable prices, will we see more premium brands having to reduce their prices
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to keep up? Again, it's just speculation for now, but my instinct says probably not
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Our buying decisions are based on far more than just price, with marketing, brand history, region
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and after-sales support, and a whole host of other factors coming into play. In short
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I don't think we can expect a sub 10 grand top spec Pinarello or Carl Nago any time in the near
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future. But hey, it's amazing to think that with Van Riesel, we can now buy a World Tour winning
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race bike for well under £10,000. And in terms of change within cycling, I think that's one that
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we can all get behind
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