A 500-Gram Secret Weapon Designed to End Season-Ending Crashes

Today, we are seeing yet another attempt at evolving safety in the professional peloton. This time, the innovation comes from Van Rysel, and what the team is announcing is a fully integrated airbag skinsuit designed specifically for the WorldTour.

This is not the first time we’ve seen a system like this. Back in January, we reported that a company called Aerobag was working on a crash-triggered airbag that lived on a rider’s back. Andrew Hood reported at the time that the system was a fairly simple concept: it relied on a CO₂ cartridge, the airbag itself, and a built-in brain to inflate near-instantaneously, providing a four-inch cushion in the event of a crash.

Even that step wasn’t inherently new, though. The idea of a near-instant airbag inflating during a crash is already prevalent and mandated in MotoGP. The real challenge is getting that technology to work within cycling-specific packaging. For better or worse, WorldTour racing is all about optimizing every single detail. Creating a conflict between protective safety gear and aerodynamic performance could easily be a bridge too far for the peloton.

The Aerobag came with a roughly 600-gram weight penalty and an estimated cost of around €700 per unit, though it was designed to be reusable. Backers hope to see it in the pro peloton by 2027, but there’s no hard date set in stone. Picnic-PostNL plans to introduce the Aerobag voluntarily in training, starting with its development squad of juniors and U23 riders, but again, that is mostly a hope for the future.

This time around, it sounds like Van Rysel is much farther along. With this release, it’s not just a hope and a dream that the details come together. As Van Rysel tells it, “the current version is already fully functional and is now in final validation with professional riders ahead of potential race deployment.”

Van Rysel clearly understands the demanding needs of the professional peloton. The Project AIRBAG system is lighter, sitting at just 500 grams, but more importantly, it’s not a separate add-on part. Van Rysel claims the system is fully integrated into a skinsuit designed from the ground up for racing. The full garment carries a 700-gram claimed weight, but weight isn’t the only angle Van Rysel is focusing on.

According to the information provided, the skinsuit is a ”collaboration with aerodynamic specialists Swiss Side, with the aim of matching the performance of a traditional WorldTour suit.” The design has been put through CFD simulations and tested in the wind tunnel. Thermoregulation has been another primary goal, utilizing “on-bike data collection using thermal sensors at race intensity with controlled climate chamber protocols that simulate peak summer racing conditions.”

The result of all this engineering is a system that promises deployment in as little as 60 milliseconds. Partnering with In&motion, the crash-detection algorithms were trained on “more than 450 million kilometres of data.” Up to 1,000 times per second, the system checks rider dynamics to distinguish actual crashes from normal race conditions. When a crash is detected, it deploys to protect the thorax and rib cage, provide cervical stabilization, and cover the full spinal line. There is also abrasion-resistant materials in areas where road rash is expected.

When is it coming?

Right now, “the system is being co-developed and validated with professional riders from the Decathlon CMA CGM team, as well as VAN RYSEL ROUBAIX.” It is not currently being deployed in actual race situations, and no timeline is given for that leap; however, it is claimed to be fully functional today.

Beyond professional racing, “VAN RYSEL plans to make airbag technology available to retail customers within the next two years.”

For more information on Van Rysel sports clothing, visit the Van Rysel website, and for information about the core airbag technology, visit the In&motion website.