BIKE TEST: THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Decathlon's Van Rysel bike brand is making waves at the peak of the pedalling performance pyramid. Will it do the same at the £4,000 mark? James Witts finds out aboard its RCR road bike...

- JAMES WITTS

With over 2,000 stores in 79 countries, French outfit Decathlon's the largest sporting goods retailer in the world. In the UK, its presence has simmered rather than boiled with around 50 stores up and down the country. For the unfamiliar, Decathlon's seemingly a hybrid of Sports Direct meets Go Outdoor with your shopping basket containing anything from sledges to a pair of football socks. It also stocks bikes; more precisely, it stocks its own range of bikes. In 2018, Triban replaced B'twin as its lower-priced offering. Then a year later, Decathlon launched Van Rysel, aimed at the higher-end of the market.

Those of you who follow professional cycling can't have failed to notice that in 2024, Decathlon became joint headline sponsor of French WorldTour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, bringing with them a fleet of Van Rysel bikes. Many scoffed, slating that the team would fall behind teams aboard the established hierarchy of the likes of Pinarello, Colnago and Trek. Well, they ended up with oeuf on their faces as the French team racked up 30 wins compared to just nine the previous year, elevating them from 18th to sixth in the UCI world rankings.

And all this with a nine-grand bike. Yes, that's still a fair whack but relatively fiscally small fry compared to the 12-grand-plus efforts from their premium rivals. In fact, you can walk into a Decathlon store and ride out with the Van Rysel RCR Pro used by the likes of Ben O'Connor and Benoit Cosnefroy (if you have £9,000 that is). Many did, the original UK batch selling out within minutes. Or if you're looking to conserve £5,000, you could opt for the Van Rysel RCR Rival AXS that I tested. It has the same geometry as its expensive sibling – understandably racy for a bike aimed at the WorldTour – and a lesser but still impressive component list. Should you buy it? Bien sur, according to Van Rysel product manager Jeremie Debeuf, who gives you some background...