Paul Seixas rides unreleased Van Rysel at the Tour de France

Seixas puts an unreleased Van Rysel in the spotlight

Paul Seixas has been riding an unreleased Van Rysel at the 2026 Tour de France, according to road.cc, turning a race-bike sighting into a broader look at Decathlon’s long arc in top-level road equipment.

The immediate story is simple: an unreleased bike is being used on the biggest stage in cycling. That matters because the Tour is where equipment choices are exposed to scrutiny, not just for branding, but for what they suggest about a manufacturer’s current direction.

Why it matters

The bigger point is the 25-year comparison. Decathlon is a giant French sports retailer, and road.cc frames Seixas’ bike as a way to examine how far its Tour de France-level race bikes have moved over that period.

For serious cyclists, this is less about one prototype and more about the pace of development. A brand’s race bike history shows how design priorities, performance expectations, and top-level credibility can shift over time. Seixas’ unreleased Van Rysel is the latest visible marker in that progression.

Full details are at the linked source.