Cyclist
How Van Rysel is making high-end look easy
When Van Rysel was launched in 2019 with the aim of making performance road bikes, there were doubters. When it announced the RCR road bike in early 2023, again there were doubters. When it was revealed that Van Rysel would be supplying a WorldTour team in 2024, there were doubters once again. Now? Doubt has given way to interest, excitement and glowing praise.
While two to three years is not an unusual amount of time between bike generations, it typically means changes are minor and are labelled as ‘evolution, not revolution’. Van Rysel, on the other hand, created the RCR from the ground up in the same timeframe, meaning it certainly was a revolution. So how do you make a world-beating road bike from scratch in such a short time?
Ticking the boxes
‘We didn’t start from scratch,’ says Yann Le Fraillec, Van Rysel’s head of product development. ‘Van Rysel as a brand is very young but behind us is the Decathlon group, which has been manufacturing bikes for more than 40 years.
‘So we’re one of the most established brands in the cycling industry – we know perfectly well how to make a carbon bike, but we were missing some steps in the story, as just being able to make a carbon bike is not enough when your goal is to supply a WorldTour team. There were many points to improve upon in terms of integration, aerodynamics, carbon layup and so on.’
The first step was to decide what kind of bike they wanted to make. That was simple: the short deadline meant it was a no-brainer to make an aero and lightweight all-rounder – especially as it would serve as a base for a time-trial bike, which was needed too.
From there Van Rysel could get to work analysing the competition and figuring out what it needed to do. ‘The first step was really to say, “Okay, what are we able to do by ourselves and what are we not able to do by ourselves? Where do we need help?”
‘Sometimes we have to be humble,’ Le Fraillec says. ‘We had to say there are things that we have mastered and things that we are OK with, so with the OK things that we can’t do ourselves, who is the best to help us?’
The first such partnership began just a week into the RCR project. Le Fraillec called up aerospace lab Onera, based barely 500m from Van Rysel’s HQ and with facilities including seven wind-tunnels and some very capable and intelligent staff.
‘I called them and said, “Guys, you know how to make things quickly and I need help to make a bike. Do you want to work with us?” And that’s how the story started.’
To help hit the tight turnaround deadline, Onera was working on the RCR road bike while Van Rysel enlisted aerodynamics expert SwissSide
to work on the time-trial bike, given its wealth of experience in cycling and Formula 1. ‘You can’t put all your eggs in one basket,’ Le Fraillec says.
Having partnerships in place meant the team could go full speed ahead, which mostly meant working on computer models. ‘It’s 80-90% CFD [computational fluid dynamics],’ he says.
‘Then we 3D print the bike, pop the frames on my shoulders and I walk to the wind-tunnel, do the tests and make the choice. It’s not necessarily just the fastest ones we keep because the most aero would be too heavy, so we have to choose the perfect balance.’
With the design sorted, actually producing the bike was the easy part. ‘We already had one of the best suppliers in the world, in one of the best factories – the supply chain was already set up,’ Le Fraillec says. ‘Moreover, in our team we have someone who is really, really skilled for the layup.
‘Not all brands can set up their layup themselves – most of the time they’re using suppliers. We have someone with more than 15 years in the carbon fibre industry who designed the layup of the frame. That can change everything because to find the right stiffness you can’t do it on a computer, it’s all about the experience.’
Le Fraillec says it took only 15 months from the start of the project to producing the first rideable frame, and the second attempt at the layup was the one that stuck.
That rapid pace of development continued in the brand’s rise to the WorldTour. While the target of the project was to enter the pro peloton in either 2024 or 2025, when the AG2R team signed up to ride Van Rysel bikes in the second half of 2023 it meant the fleet had to be ready for the season-opening Tour Down Under in January 2024.
The payoff is that as Van Rysel works on new and updated bikes, it now has the added assistance of having a team of experienced pro riders for feedback.
Delivering the boxes
That focus on the future is a key component for Van Rysel, as despite the impressive gains it has already made through bikes such as the RCR, its story is really only just beginning. To achieve its goal of being one of the top five cycling brands in the world, making a bike and signing up a pro team is phase one. Phase two is all about real people.
Part of the reason Decathlon created Van Rysel is that it realised it was losing customers who would start their cycling journey with them but then move on to other brands once they wanted to step up. Now, with the premium products in the bag, it’s about cementing Van Rysel as a brand for cyclists of any level.
‘We needed to rethink our customer journey, because the expectation for this audience is going to be different in terms of services and the wider customer experience,’ says David Martin, market leader for Decathlon’s cycling and active travel category in the UK.
‘It’s a fantastic product, we know that. Now we’re trying to convince people that the rest of the services we offer can really support the product.
‘That’s one of the big reasons why we opened the Van Rysel shop inside the Decathlon Surrey Quays store. It may be inside the Decathlon building but the experience is completely separate. The look, the merchandise, the team is all different.
‘The idea is that people can look online, book a bike-fitting service in the store workshop, have one of the guys talk them through the process and answer any questions, knowing they’ll still be there to support the customer after they’ve purchased the bike.’
Following in the footsteps of the London store, staff and mechanics from across the country have been trained – including being given a session by the mechanic that gets team bikes ready for the Tour de France – to make sure Van Rysel customers get the best service possible, wherever they are in the country.
And where Decathlon doesn’t have a store, Martin’s team are hoping to work with other local bike shops to deliver Van Rysel’s products and service.
‘Although to be honest, when we do training the staff already know about our products and have already read up on them,’ Martin says. ‘They’re passionate about the products and really proud to sell them.’
And that’s the secret – or rather the answer, since it’s hardly a secret. The Van Rysel project worked, and worked quickly, because everyone involved was excited and proud to on board. If the RCR drew your attention, don’t look away.
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