Coming soon! Van Rysel RCR-F "setting a new standard for aero bikes”… says Van Rysel

Van Rysel is set to launch a new aero road bike called the RCR-F, which will be raced by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in 2025. The team will race it alongside the RCR-R road bike, designed to be both lightweight and aerodynamically efficient, and the RCR-X time trial bike.

The RCR-F has yet to be launched in the normal sense. Van Rysel has acknowledged that the new bike is on its way, but details are scarce at this stage. This looks like the bike we spotted Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale sprinters riding in this year’s Tour de France. 

 

 

 

 

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This is the second new aero bike we've reported this week, after Colnago launched its Y1Rs yesterday.

> The bike Pogačar wins Milan-San Remo on? Colnago claims outlandish new aero road bike is "most aerodynamic in the WorldTour"

Van Rysel has said that RCR-F was developed in collaboration with Swiss Side, the wheels brand that specialises in aerodynamics. Van Rysel and Swiss Side have worked together lots in the past, including on the new XCR-Tri bike. Both are sponsors of the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team.

We don’t know the extent of the collaboration on the RCR-F, although Van Rysel says that the new bike “achieves aerodynamic savings of over 13 watts compared to the RCR-R”. It doesn’t say in what conditions that claim applies.

Van Rysel says, “Built to slice through the air with precision, the RCR-F sets a new standard for aero bikes.”

That’s the type of claim we’re used to hearing when new bikes appear on the scene. Van Rysel has yet to provide evidence to back that up.

It also describes the RCR-F as being designed “to dominate the sprint”. Again, that’s a fairly standard claim.

Van Rysel describes the RCR-R as being “the riders’ favourite choice for hilly and mountain stages”, so we can reason that the RCR-F is a little heavier.

Comparing the appearance of the existing RCR and the RCR-F, the new bike looks to have more depth to the tubing throughout. The head tube, down tube, seat tube and dropped seatstays all appear deeper, as does the seat post, and the fork legs don’t taper to the same extent.

The fork crown is integrated into the head tube on the RCR-F, and the headset cover sits within the head tube and top tube junction rather than extending higher.

It looks as if the top of the down tube has been shaped to manage the airflow coming from the top of the fork legs. These are all features that we’ve come to associate with aero road bikes over the years.

RCR is a contraction of the word ‘Racer’, by the way, and the 'F' bit of the name stands for ‘Fast’.

We’re also interested in prices, of course. The Van Rysel RCR Pro Replica Dura Ace Di2 Decathlon AG2R Team – with a power meter and Swiss Side Hadron Ultimate 500 wheels – is £9,000. Okay, that’s still a lot of money but it’s a lot less expensive than top-level race bikes in comparable specs from other brands.

The Van Rysel RCR Pro in a Shimano Ultegra Di2 build, again with a power meter, is £5,500.

It’s interesting that while some brands have been busy merging their lightweight bikes with their aero bikes – Trek, for example, recently combined its Emonda and Madone into one platform – others still see plenty of mileage in a dedicated aero road bike. For example, we’ve already this week seen Colnago launch the aero Y1Rs to sit alongside the V4Rs all-rounder in its range. A light weight is always a consideration to some degree but on flatter, faster courses, aerodynamics can come to the fore.

We’ll be fascinated to hear the full story behind Van Rysel’s RCR-F whenever it is officially launched.