Fancy a replica of the ‘cheapest’ World Tour bike? The Van Rysel RCR PRO team edition is (almost) ready to pre-order from Decathlon

Decathlon has announced that a replica of the RCR PRO bike will be available for purchase on the French sports brand’s website soon. It was in September 2023 when we found out that AG2R would be riding Van Rysel bikes in 2024, and a little later the news was officially confirmed as Van Rysel was announced as the team’s title sponsor. It was also revealed that team bikes and kit would be made available to buy on the Decathlon website, and the team bike with the exact specifications that the pros use could now be yours sooner rather than later. 

The team’s aero bike is the first one to fulfil this promise, as the team edition of the RCR PRO is set to go live on Tuesday, 16 April at 10am BST. The RCR PRO is the flagship aero road bike from the range that Van Rysel announced a year ago. 

Now, Van Rysel is replicating the pro team version of The RCR PRO for Sunday club riders like you and me (if you’ve got the funds to invest). The bike, which we’re told is the pinnacle of the brand’s aerodynamic engineering with especially lightweight construction, has been developed in collaboration with ONERA, the esteemed French aerospace laboratory, and constructed with ‘Super High Mod Carbon’. It boasts head tube stiffness that surpasses its predecessor, and supposedly, it is very aero outside the wind tunnels too, as Benoît Cosnefroy from Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale says:

“It’s very aerodynamic. It sends speed straight back without needing too much effort. The bike remains the centrepiece of our equipment, and in today’s cycling landscape where average speeds often exceed 50 km/h, aerodynamics are paramount.”

As a testament to its speed, Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale now boasts sixteen victories at the top-level races. With that, Van Rysel has quite effectively eradicated the doubts some might have had about its entry back into the professional peloton – the last time Decathlon sponsored a pro team was in the mid-2000s. 

> Check out AG2R’s 2001 Decathlon Penta Pro

“We are thrilled to announce the upcoming pre-order availability of the RCR PRO Replica. This bike has already proven its mettle with the riders of the Decathlon – AG2R La Mondiale team, garnering excellent feedback. We are confident that this machine is poised to dominate the victory podium,” Jérémie Debeuf, product manager at Van Rysel, said. 

In terms of the spec, the replica comes equipped Shimano Dura-Ace R9270 electronic groupset, paired with a power meter. The integrated cockpit and seatpost are both carbon, and the saddle is the Fizik Vento Argo 00. 

The wheels are Swiss Side Hadron Ultimate 500s wrapped in Continental GP5000 tyres. There are four frame sizes to choose from – XS, S, M and L – and each one of those comes with a size-specific stem and crank length.

As mentioned before, the bike will be available for pre-orders from Tuesday 16 April on Decathlon and the price will be £9,000 a pop. Not cheap by any means, but nowhere near finding its way onto our recently refreshed list of the most expensive road bikes… what a bargain!