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Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale finally rolled out its new Van Rysel aero bike for stage 2 of the Tour de France and in doing so gave us us our first proper glimpses of the dedicated go-faster rig.
After JP Ballard first teased the bike in an episode of Performance Process earlier this year and we reported the first sightings of it in last week's Performance Process newsletter, we finally got a chance on stage 2 to get a closer look. Both Sam Bennett and Oliver Naesen had the new bike at their disposal during stage 2, although, it's likely its first real action will come on the flat, should-be-for-the-sprinters day, on stage 3.
There are no details yet as to when the new bike will be available, or even any official acknowledgement of the new bike, but it very clearly exists, so let's take a closer look.
The new Van Rysel is a dedicated aero bike in an ever-growing sea of "all-rounder bikes." There are deep, aero-profiled tubes throughout, a seat tube cut-out, dropped and profiled seatstays, forks, and seatposts, and the most aero-profiled stem spacers I've seen in a long time, possibly ever.Let's play a game of guessing my name. Here's a hint: Van Rysel's existing bike is called the RCR Pro. This new bike has FCR Pro on the top tube.The sheer depth of the FCR's tubes is more evident from this angle. As is the profiling on the seatstay to seat tube interface.The head tube doesn't appear to be the narrowest, usually a key aero indicator of the aero philosophy across the rest of the frame. But for every rule, there is an exception because ...... it may actually be narrower than the smoke cammo paintjob makes it seem. It also seems to feature a slight profiling to the leading edge, potentially reducing the high pressure zone down the front of the head tube. And finally, just look at the head tube depth. Van Rysel clearly did some thinking about and testing of this frame design.Those stem spacers are among the deepest and most-profiled I can recall seeing.And the integrated bar stem is equally impressive with a deep profiled top section and this tear-drop stem design.Those tops are massively aero-profiled.The forks are not the deepest we have seen this year, though.And neither is the bottom bracket area. That's not to say either are particularly small, though.No glaring omissions or draggy designs here.A closer look at the seat tube and stays.A comparison of just how deep the seat tube is on the new FCR Pro (left) versus the all-rounder RCR Pro (right).The FCR seat tube is clearly a relation of the RCR, but significantly deeper.Do that, on this bike, and I bet you are winning sprints.
