Van Rysel RCR Pro Review: Goodbye To An Old Friend.
The Van Rysel RCR Pro launched in 2024. It was Van Rysel's mic-drop moment, a WorldTour-spec bike designed to win at the highest level, with ambitions stretching all the way to the Tour de France.
It raised a few eyebrows. It tested fast, genuinely fast, in the wind tunnel. It was light. And the spec-versus-price turned heads in a way that a bike from a sporting goods supermarket really had no business doing. In its first year, the team then known as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale (now Decathlon CMA CGM) won 30 races on it, and Ben O'Connor backed that up with second place at the Vuelta a España and a silver medal at the World Championships. That's not a quiet debut. That's a bike announcing itself.
Journalists loved it too. Rouleur and Tour Magazine both handed it rave reviews, and it became a genuine statement of intent from the brand "From Lille" which is what Van Rysel actually translates to, drawn from the Flemish name for the city, a nod to Decathlon's home turf and the cobbled Flanders roads just up the road.
Two Years, A Few Thousand Kilometres, One Verdict
I've written two articles about mine now. We've shared a fair few kilometres over the last two years, and I can say, safely and without hyperbole, that it's fast, but more importantly to me, it's fun. I reckon it's bought me a couple of years, or at least made me look a bit faster and a bit more capable than I actually am, as I've crept into my fifties.
I've said before that I like to think of myself as a gentleman cyclist. I can be stuck in the past. I've been known to sneer at "progress" for progress's sake. But even I have to admit: fast is fun, so long as the bike still has feeling underneath it and the RCR Pro has that. That's why it's grown on me the way it has.
I'm not, as a rule, a fan of aero tube profiles or bendy, wind-cheating shapes. I'm not a fan of dropped seat stays or aggressively compact geometry either. But somewhere along the way, I've conceded a bit. Maybe even warmed to it.
The End Of An Era: A New Van Rysel Is Coming
So here's the honest bit. The 2026 Tour de France is here, and if you've been watching closely, you'll have seen Paul Seixas and Felix Gall of Decathlon CMA CGM on a new bike from Van Rysel — one that signals the end of the road for the current RCR Pro. Road.cc spotted and leaked it at the Critérium du Dauphiné (now rebranded the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), and since then it's popped up again and again through the French teenager's build-up to his Tour debut — a deep, aggressive head tube and fork grafted onto a much slimmer, lighter rear end, blending the aero cues of the RCR-F with the low weight of the outgoing bike.
Van Rysel really are at the pointy end of bike tech these days. They collaborate with some genuinely serious partners: ONERA, the French space agency, for aerodynamics; Swiss Side, the aero wizards, for further aerodynamic optimisation; and Deda, the Italian component manufacturer, for cockpits and finishing kit. The new bike will, no doubt, be lighter, faster, more aero, and will save some number of watts over the old one all driven by a clear goal and a serious budget behind putting teenage sensation Paul Seixas on the top step of a podium, repeatedly, over the next few years.
Why I Won't Be Swapping Mine Out
But here's the thing. I won't be swapping mine for the new one.
For all the speed benefits on offer, I'm only getting older. I'm losing speed and power and gaining a few kilos, not shedding them. I've grown to like the lines of the original bike. I love the way it rides and the way it feels. But holding 45kph simply isn't something I'm capable of anymore, and whatever aero gains the new bike offers would be entirely wasted on me.
I ride less often and have found an unexpected love for bikepacking/ touring. I admire brands coming up with tech and designing bikes for racing and have no issues with consumers buying and riding whatever they want no matter how fast or far. But these bikes aren’t for me.
I do genuinely hope that, much like Tadej Pogačar and the Colnago Y1RS, this new bike and Paul Seixas turn out to be a dream match, that the sight of the teenager rampaging through the WorldTour makes it a cool, desirable bike in its own right, and makes people accept that Van Rysel aren't messing around. They know exactly what they're doing, they have a clear goal, and they have the budget to deliver on it.
I'll be sad to see the old bike replaced that curved seat tube, that deeper head tube, the shape I've come to know so well. But some friendships don't need an upgrade to stay good. Mine's staying for now, and we've still got plenty of road left to cover together.
Ride reports, gear reviews and long-distance cycling stories from ASCND. Follow along at @ascnd.cc and listen to The Road to Respair wherever you get your podcasts.
Van Rysel RCR Links