Decathlon have rebranded their performance road bikes, with what was previously called the B’Twin Ultra now being known as Van Rysel Ultra for 2019. One other fascinating fact is the Ultra is also road.cc’s Road Bike of the Year 2018/19 AND our overall Bike of the Year 2018/19 too.
Review: B’Twin Ultra 900 CF 105
Decathlon road bikes buyer’s guide
Decathlon live-streamed the launch on Facebook late last Friday (watch the video above) and as well as showing the 2019 bike and kit they also revealed a prototype of what looks to be an aero road frame that will form part of the 2020 Van Rysel range. Van Rysel translates to ‘from Lille’ in Flemish; and to show further commitment to their image transformation from bargain basement bikes to a performance-orientated brand, Decathlon have now switched production from Portugal to Lille for the Van Rysel project so the bikes can be tested on the same storied roads used in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
The 2019 Van Rysel Ultra performance road bike is essentially the B’Twin Ultra frame, just given a fresh lick of paint and a new name; however that’s no bad thing at all, with the Ultra receiving a glowing review on road.cc last summer (as you’d expect from a multi-award winning bike). There will be two aluminium and seven carbon models in a range of specs, colours and price points. The Ultegra Di2 version with Mavic Cosmic Pro SL carbon wheels will be €3800. For this year all bikes are rim brake only, with Decathlon planning to introduce disc versions “in the near future” according to their road bike brand manager.
There will also be products such as performance jerseys, skin suits and shoes in the range, and the new €130 Van Rysel road shoe was developed with input from AG2R La Mondiale pro riders. Perhaps the most interesting part of the launch was what’s to come in 2020, with Decathlon revealing that next year they will branch out to three new frames. The prototype shown, named PNPL 2.0 for now by the looks of it, appears to be the all-out aero bike, and Decathlon say they will also be introducing an all-round lightweight option and an entry-level racer.
Decathlon say we can expect to see the 2019 Van Rysel Ultra bikes online and in stores from March 2019, with no exact dates set for the new frames coming in 2020.
11 thoughts on “Decathlon launch Van Rysel brand for their performance road bike range”
That silver and white one
That silver and white one looks lovely.
Any word on Dics brake
Any word on Dics brake versions?
Smultie wrote:
I’ve just heard back from Decathlon on this – there are no disc versions this year but they’re in the pipeline for the near future.
Jack Sexty wrote:
Any word on Dics brake versions?
— Jack Sexty I’ve just heard back from Decathlon on this – there are no disc versions this year but they’re in the pipeline for the near future.— Smultie
Thanks. That unfortunately takes Van Rysel off my shortlist for a new bike end of the year.
“Van Rysel translates to
“Van Rysel translates to ‘from Lille’”
I like that.
Duncann wrote:
I’m confused. How can it translate as ‘from Lille’ when it doesn’t have the word Lille in it?! I’m obviously no Flemish speaker, but ‘van’ means from if I’m not mistaken, and ‘Rysel’ is just a name is it not, so surely it translates as ‘from Rysel’, wherever that is….
Pilot Pete wrote:
I’m confused. How can it translate as ‘from Lille’ when it doesn’t have the word Lille in it?! I’m obviously no Flemish speaker, but ‘van’ means from if I’m not mistaken, and ‘Rysel’ is just a name is it not, so surely it translates as ‘from Rysel’, wherever that is….
— Duncann
According to my sources that definitely aren’t Wikipedia, ‘Rysel’ is what they call Lille in the West Flemish dialect and in Dutch it’s ‘Rijsel’. No idea why or how, but there were a couple of Dutch speakers on the Facebook comment thread when I posted this story who confirmed it’s true… learn something new every day etc etc!
Jack Sexty wrote:
I’m confused. How can it translate as ‘from Lille’ when it doesn’t have the word Lille in it?! I’m obviously no Flemish speaker, but ‘van’ means from if I’m not mistaken, and ‘Rysel’ is just a name is it not, so surely it translates as ‘from Rysel’, wherever that is….
— Pilot Pete According to my sources that definitely aren’t Wikipedia, ‘Rysel’ is what they call Lille in the West Flemish dialect and in Dutch it’s ‘Rijsel’. No idea why or how, but there were a couple of Dutch speakers on the Facebook comment thread when I posted this story who confirmed it’s true… learn something new every day etc etc!— Duncann
It’s good fun catching a train in Belgium – station names change as you get closer to the Flemish/Walloon border. Always bi-lingual but some place names are radically different, without the info screens on the trains it would be hugely confusing. Belgians seem to swap freely between Dutch, French, German, & English, most impressive.
The whole “van” thing is important too, adds a certain history and substance to the brand.
No discs is a huge mistake, I
No discs is a huge mistake, I would not call the ‘near future’ 2020 at best that is a long time away in cycling terms nowadays.
Rebranded being the key word
Rebranded being the key word then since these are just resprayed ultra frames as the article says.
The Van Rysel Ultra AF even still has the BTWIN name clearly press engraved into the frame at the rear (doh!) if you were in any doubt.
Also it’s 999,99 euros and only has Shimano 105/Mavic Aksium wheels on it whereas up until just a few days ago you could buy a Btwin 920AF (the SAME frame) with full Ultegra and Mavic Cosmic wheels for 999,99 euros (yeh, it was 999,99gbp on the uk site but all other european Decathlon sites had it for 999,99 euros).
There goes a great deal!
I hope their new brand is a big success. Seems a lot of people really hated the BTWIN name.
p.s. not sure i understand the info about production being moved back to Lille from Portugal. Both my Btwin Triban 500 and my Btwin Ultra 920AF state MADE IN FRANCE unerneath the bottom bracket. If they were in fact made in Portugal then so were the new resprayed Van Rysel frames I guess the article must be referencing the new yet to be released aero frame.
I’ll definitely by checking
I’ll definitely by checking out those mother of pearl shoes next time I’m in Decathlon.
I can understand why they’ve split their range into two distinct brands in this age of brand snobbery, even if wasn’t really necessary.