Much has been made of Decathlon’s entry into the WorldTour. The sports megamarket assumed joint sponsorship of Decathlon-AG2R La Mondale at the start of 2024. The team has won a raft of race and stage wins aboard the manufacturer’s Van Rysel RCR Pro model – including two stage wins at the Giro d’Italia, fourth on GC with Ben O’Connor and first team. AG2R is currently fourth in the WorldTour standings, a leap up from 18th position where it finished in 2023. Austrian Felix Gall, the owner of this bike shot by Rouleur's James Startt, is currently 11th on GC at the Tour de France.
Until now, the French team was riding the Van Rysel RCR Pro. However, ahead of this year’s Tour de France, the Van Rysel FCR Pro has reared its sculpted head tube. Adorned with UCI prototype frame badges, the as-yet-unreleased bike certainly stands out as unashamedly aero next to the converged bike designs of most of the pro peloton.
The new bike’s tube shapes are significantly more aerodynamic-looking than those of Van Rysel’s RCR Pro, including a far deeper head tube, a wide down tube and wide bladed forks, which are badged ‘Aero24 Project’. Either a catchy marketing moniker or a bonafide aero-testing sample name, we’ll wait and see when Decathlon officially launches the bike. Other eye-catching details include the deep seat post and seat tube – far more akin to the aero bikes of yesteryear.
Although unreleased, Decathlon hasn’t done much to hide the bike with such a distinctive marbled paint job. The finish is applied via water transfer, and each frame dipped into a solution making each one unique. Currently Sam Bennett as well as Felix Gall is using the bike.
The FCR Pro is equipped with Swiss Side’s Hadron 625 wheels, 62mm deep to match the aero profile of the frame, and shod with a Continental GP5000 S TR tyre on the rear and a Continental Aero 111 tyre on the front. AG2R have been involved since December in testing the aerodynamic front-specific tyre developed with Swiss Side and DT Swiss that could save up to 20 watts at higher yaw angles.
Deda provides a one-piece bar and stem which accommodates the brake cables internally and it looks as though the bike uses split spacers – common on modern bikes to make front end maintenance easier. We know that Van Rysel and Deda developed a new bar especially for the RCR Pro – is this the result of another project with ONERA, the French aerospace lab that has its wind tunnel just across the street from Van Rysel’s HQ in Lille?
The Decathalon-AG2R La Mondale team is sponsored by Shimano, using Dura-Ace 12-speed groupsets. Here Felix Gall is running a 54/44 chainring.
Even five or six years ago, bike’s of this shape were common across the pro peloton, as brand’s pursued the fastest possible shapes often at the detriment of ride quality and weight. Bikes like the Specialized Venge (now discontinued) and the Trek Madone (now blended with the Trek Emonda) were used by the team’s fast men to eke out every aero advantage.
However, in today’s peloton, the FCR Pro is a far cry from the more rounded tubes and small bottom bracket of its competitors, including Van Rysel’s own RCR Pro models. In recent years manufacturers have blended their lightweight and aerodynamic platforms, as advancements in tube shaping and carbon layup have reduced weight without significantly affecting aerodynamic performance.
Why has Van Rysel bucked the trend and produced a separate aero bike when the majority of the more established brands seem to be going in the opposite direction and getting rid of theirs? Rouleur’s Simon Smythe asked the question when the bike was semi-leaked at Lille back in May and was told: “We have to be better than the other brands or there's no reason for people to choose us over them.”
That said, there are still manufacturers with distinctive aero and climbing models. Cervélo has both the R5 and S5 as used by Visma-Lease a Bike and Cannondale has the SystemSix and the SuperSix, as used by EF-Education EasyPost. Although the latter still uses distinctly aerodynamic tube shapes.
