Van Rysel came out of nowhere to shake up professional cycling, and we sit down with Jeremy Deo, head of product, to uncover exactly how a brand with zero history became a World Tour contender overnight. We dig into the aerodynamic development, the real feedback loop with pro riders, and why the bike costs significantly less than competitors while matching or beating them on performance data.
Key Takeaways
- Van Rysel prioritizes ultimate performance over cost-cutting—every design decision is performance-first, which is why the bike resonates with both pros and customers despite being a young brand
- The RC1R dominates aero testing on Tour Magazine's independent rankings (ranked #1 in the allrounder category), but Van Rysel views this as just the beginning and is already iterating for year two
- Pro rider feedback happens in structured, ongoing sessions throughout the season (4-5 times per year during races), not just pre-production, allowing engineers to validate theoretical improvements in real conditions
- The biggest untapped opportunity for amateur cyclists is position optimization—the bike is only 25% of aerodynamic drag, so home CDA measurement tools will be the next game-changer for performance gains
- Durability and repairability are sustainability strategies: pro riders log extreme mileage, revealing which parts fail, so Van Rysel over-engineers those components to last 10 years instead of 1 for customers
- More demand than supply in year one signals genuine product-market fit—customer mindset shifted dramatically once they saw the bike winning races and heard pro riders praising it
Expert Quotes
"Our main priority is to develop with them excellent product, ideally the best product on the market, the fastest one. Equipment is one ingredient of performance, but we focus on creating an advantage for the team."
"When you think about performance first, you do everything you can to have a very performing product and you stop from that point. You don't say, 'If I add this or remove this line, I can save maybe a bit of money.' All our choices were about performance."
"Until December 2023 we had a lot of comments saying Van Rysel being a partner of a pro team will surely struggle. From January, when people started seeing the bike winning, the mindset changed straight away in terms of business."