We took a closer look at Paul Sexias’ prototype Van Rysel climbing bike that he will ride in his first career Tour de France.
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
Updated July 3, 2026 05:10PM
Paul Sexias, the biggest French hope of his generation, will ride the 2026 Tour de France on a prototype Van Rysel bike that looks set to bring an all-around platform to the brand’s lineup. We got to take a close look at the unreleased bike before the Tour de France gets underway over the weekend.
The brand did not provide any details, but at the Decathlon CMA CGM Team pre-Tour headquarters, we took a look at all corners of the frame to parse through what we could. While we don’t know anything concrete yet, from the look of things, the bike does look to add a dimension to the Van Rysel line that continues to push its way into the premium road market.
Is it a climbing bike, or something more well-rounded?
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
Compared to the aero bike that most of the team is riding, the new bike is significantly more restrained with tube shaping. This means the bike is likely heavier on the climbing bike side of the equation.
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
That being said, with many out-and-out aero bikes starting to find their way closer to the UCI weight limit, any new climbing bikes will also consider aerodynamics quite heavily in frame design. Look no further than the new Specialized Tarmac SL9 to see how that balance has some new bikes starting to coalesce around a hybrid, all-around design. That seems to be a good category to put this new bike, with the small seat tube, down tube, and lack of pronounced aero sculpting.
Modern geometry appears in subtle ways
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
It is difficult to see exactly what a bike’s geometry is from just looking at a bike, but we can see a few key things here with this prototype. The number one aspect that jumps out is the visibly steep effective seat tube angle. A common aspect of Tour de France bikes this year has been zero setback seat posts and seats that are slammed far forward on their rails. That trend has been building over the last few years, and bike manufacturers are looking for ways to make new bikes to meet that shift forward with progressive positions.
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
The new Van Rysel seems to be making this calculation by shifting the seat further forward with a steeper seat tube angle.
Ultimately, we only had a handful of minutes with the bike, and the staff from Decathlon and Van Rysel were staying quite tight-lipped, but we are excited to see more from this bike soon and will be reporting along the way.
Additional details
The least climbing thing about the bike is deeper head tube. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins/Velo)
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