Rising star Paul Seixas could debut Van Rysel’s prototype all-rounder race bike at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes this coming week.
We’ve spotted the bike on top of a team car just before it rolled out with the riders for a training ride, all of whom – Seixas included – were riding the brand’s aero race bike, the RCR-F.
The bike initially leaked via an Instagram post of Seixas on a training ride, where we speculated that it could either be a replacement for the RCR-F, RCR-R or RCR Pro.
The bike certainly has an all-rounder design aesthetic, albeit with a deep head tube and fork blades.
This is affirmed by the branding on the lower portion of the down tube, which reads “Road – Aero – Light”; a tagline for an all-round race bike if ever there was one.
Further back, the tubes are slimmer, likely designed to save weight while improving ride quality.
The seatstays are slim, but feature a small shelf before extending downwards to the rear dropouts.
The upper portion of the seat tube and seatpost are aero profiled, but then further down the seat tube narrows and curves around the rear wheel.
The Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT TR tyre size is unknown for now, but the curvature of the frame in this area, and remaining space, indicates wide tyre clearance.
The frame is painted, and given Van Rysel has gone to the trouble of branding it (rather than keeping it blank), suggests this new model is close to an official launch.
Given Seixas is set to be the youngest Tour de France debut rider in 90 years this summer, the bike could well be set to launch around then – capitalising on the buzz surrounding the rider given his promise as the next big challenger to Tadej Pogačar’s Tour dominance.
It would also be a PR coup if Seixas could replace any one of the ‘big three’ for a spot on the podium in Paris.
