Van Rysel RCR Sport Winter Cycling Tights

Reasonably priced, with a reputable (if a bit wide) Elastic Interface pad and some clever panel placement, the Van Rysel RCR Sport Winter Cycling Tights keep you comfortable on long, cold rides. Ideal for training or commuting, they're a great upgrade from non-winter-specific tights for when the weather bites.

If you're interested in these Van Rysels, check out our best winter bib tights guide for more options.

Decathlon is well known for its bargain-basement prices and big blue warehouses full of sports equipment scattered throughout Europe, and Van Rysel is its race-orientated, road-specific range of cycling kit.

Performance

Decathlon describes these tights as being 'dedicated to performance' and 'perfect for rides in temperatures between -3°C and 10°C', as well as being 'soft, warm, windproof and water-repellent'. They're designed, it says, for 'comfort and freedom of movement, letting you ride for longer'.

After testing these tights every other ride (mostly in the 5-10°C range), I have to agree with Decathlon's summary. While I've not been riding in -3°C (too icy!), I can attest to their warmth in conditions just above freezing; the clever use of panels is effective at keeping wind and water out.

The pad is also comfortable over the mid-long distances I ride in winter (80-100km), with about the right thickness and compliance. More on the pad in a minute.

Panels

The tights are constructed using a huge number of panels of different thicknesses, which do a good job of fulfilling various functions such as insulation and flexibility.

The front and sides of the thigh and shin are a thicker black material, with the remaining areas made of a greyer, stretchier fabric that allows movement around the knees and at the top of the tights and means the bibs can be made without zips – something I approve of, as they often unzip and/or dig in.

Where the multi-fabric, multi-panelled design makes less sense is at the top of the bib tights at the front, where there is a panel of even thinner material across the abs (or, for some of us, belly), where the shoulder straps join. This is also a little low for my liking – especially for winter bibs, where the more wind protection on your front, the better – and the much thinner material compromises the tights' overall structure, giving little compression and making them feel even lower than they actually are.

Otherwise, the fit is good. The leg length is just right for me; they're tight where you want them to be, and more compliant where you don't. These are undeniably a comfortable pair of bib tights.

Wrapped around the calves you'll find a thin strip of reflective detailing as well as a small reflective logo on the side of the left thigh. While not offering a lot of reflectivity, these details are always welcome on winter kit.

The bibs are quite similar in construction to Van Rysel's RCR500 Super Roubaix Winter Bib Shorts, reviewed in 2021, with the Super Roubaix fabric making a strong comeback here, along with the slightly less welcome scratchy shoulder straps (although only an issue if you're not wearing a baselayer – they didn't affect me at all).

Pad

Decathlon has specified an Italian-made Elastic Interface chamois, found in a staggering number of big and small cycle kit brands including dhb, MAAP, Assos, Universal Colours, Altura, CHPT3 and many more, though not all EI pads are made equal... the company has 80 off-the-shelf varieties, and custom makes exclusive pads for leading brands (EIT signature pads).

Regardless of the quality of the pad, the way it's incorporated into the garment also matters a great deal. The pad selected for these bibs is a bit too wide for my liking, running down the inside of the leg a bit too much, and when I asked customer services whether each size of garment (from S to 2XL) had the same sized pad, I was told that they do; it's the same in each – a potential concern if you're ordering a small.

Another issue I noticed when I tried these bib tights for the first time was a sort of prickling/itching sensation around the edge of the pad. Upon inspection, it seems to be caused by the raw edge of the pad foam being exposed (see below), and the topmost layer of the pad is held in compression by the stitching in such a way that the fibres at the edge of the top layer poke into your leg slightly.

Going on something of a deep dive into the thrilling topic of pad stitching, I pulled out a selection of my bib shorts and tights, which range massively in price from some £30 dhb Classic Bib Shorts, to £200 Rapha Pro Team Winter Thermal Tights. I then discovered that the pads in my dhb, Mono, and MAAP bib shorts are all made by Elastic Interface, and aside from the MAAP shorts, each pad is flatlock stitched into the shorts.

Those MAAP shorts, though, with their very similar non-flatlocked stitch pattern around the pad (pictured below), don't cause any irritation, despite the raw edge of the fabric and foam padding. The only visible difference is that the stitching on the MAAPs is closer to the edge of the pad, and isn't causing the 'arching' effect seen on the Van Rysel pad's edge. Granted, my MAAP shorts have already seen a few thousand km, but I never experienced any prickling/itching from the edges of the pad, even when new.

That said, it's not really noticeable when riding, and hopefully it will cease to be a problem after some more use.

Price

Looking around at what else you can get for this kind of money, Carnac's Deep Winter Cycling Bib Tights are £59.99, and feature flatlock stitching, and said to be good down to temperatures of -10°C. Although the images give little away in terms of construction, the description is very similar to that of the Van Rysels.

Also similarly priced are Endura's Xtract bib tights at £74.99. Endura describes them as 'mid weight', but doesn't specify a temperature range, though it does say they're thermal and insulating. They use Endura's own pad with gel inserts.

Featuring an Elastic Interface pad that was highly praised by our reviewer (and flatlock stitched into the bibs!), the dhb Classic Thermal Bib Tights at £80 are stiff competition (and currently reduced to £32), although the heavy use of zips and dull aesthetics would steer me towards the Van Rysels.

Planet

Decathlon has an interesting tool on its website for calculating the carbon footprint of its products. The carbon footprint of these Van Rysel Bib Tights is listed as 23.63 kg CO2e (kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, which takes into account other greenhouse gases).

Decathlon's website states '1 kg of CO2e represents 5km in a petrol car (according to the Base Carbone© of ADEME)', so you'd only need to do 118.15km on your bike instead of in your car to offset these bib tights' manufacture.

The tights have scored quite low marks (a D on a scale from A-E) for their environmental impact. But it really depends what you do with them. The best-case scenario is that they radically change your comfort on the bike in winter (not impossible if you're upgrading from shorts!) and you totally ditch the car in favour of the bicycle for your 8km (5-mile) each-way commute.

Assuming an 8km (5-mile) commute (71% of car journeys are under five miles in the UK according to the National Travel Survey 2020), if these bib tights help you choose the bike over the car for only an extra 7.4 days (to and from work, 16km per day), you've offset their manufacture. Of course there are so many other factors to take into consideration, such as the full life cycle of this garment (and your car!), and that's not really the scope of this review, but this rough calculation is encouraging.

If they change your life completely, you ditch the car and commute into the office five days a week throughout winter (from early November to late March, covering roughly 1600km), you'll offset their manufacture a whopping 13x over in a single year. Wow. There are probably some massive financial savings and fitness gains to be made from this too, and maybe a city or town out there with a tiny bit less air pollution, but this digression has gone on long enough! Back to the review...

Conclusion

A few weeks before I received the Van Rysels for review, I'd purchased the chart-topping Rapha Pro Team Winter Bib Tights as a long-term investment, after reading the road.cc best winter bib tights buyer's guide.

This gave me a nice basis for comparing the two as I alternated between them during the review period. The Raphas cost me more than double the rrp of the Van Rysels, even with a discount, and although they are admittedly better in every respect, at the end of the day they're doing a very similar job.

The Van Rysels are good enough to stop me reaching for the Raphas every time – which I see as quite an achievement. All in all, I've been pleased to have both in my collection – the Van Rysels extending the life of my 'investment purchase' Raphas, and having another option for mid-week rides between laundry loads.

Overall, the Van Rysels provide good protection from the wind, rain and cold, with thoughtful construction that keeps you comfortable. The pad is of good quality, albeit a little wide, and should really be sewn in with a flatlock stitch. These are quite small details in the grand scheme of things, though, and I wouldn't hesitate to wear them on any winter ride.

Verdict

Capable bib tights for cold weather that, aside from a couple of lapses in quality, stand up to pricier options