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.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time we\u2019ve 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\u2019s back. Andrew Hood reported at the time that the system was a fairly simple concept: it relied on a CO\u2082 cartridge, the airbag itself, and a built-in brain to inflate near-instantaneously, providing a four-inch cushion in the event of a crash.<\/p>\n Even that step wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n The Aerobag came with a roughly 600-gram weight penalty and an estimated cost of around \u20ac700 per unit, though it was designed to be reusable. Backers hope to see it in the pro peloton by 2027, but there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n This time around, it sounds like Van Rysel is much farther along. With this release, it\u2019s not just a hope and a dream that the details come together. As Van Rysel tells it, \u201cthe current version is already fully functional and is now in final validation with professional riders ahead of potential race deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019t the only angle Van Rysel is focusing on.<\/p>\n According to the information provided, the skinsuit is a \u201dcollaboration with aerodynamic specialists Swiss Side, with the aim of matching the performance of a traditional WorldTour suit.\u201d The design has been put through CFD simulations and tested in the wind tunnel. Thermoregulation has been another primary goal, utilizing \u201con-bike data collection using thermal sensors at race intensity with controlled climate chamber protocols that simulate peak summer racing conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cmore than 450 million kilometres of data.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Right now, \u201cthe system is being co-developed and validated with professional riders from the Decathlon CMA CGM team, as well as VAN RYSEL ROUBAIX.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Beyond professional racing, \u201cVAN RYSEL plans to make airbag technology available to retail customers within the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-gear\/ven-rysel-skinsuit-airbag-announcement\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FUSION_VAN-RYSEL_AIRBAG-crash-test_5-Edit.jpg”] Josh Ross Published April 10, 2026 04:00AM 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1875601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1875601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1875601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1875601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1875601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"VAN](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FUSION_VAN-RYSEL_AIRBAG-crash-test_4.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"VAN](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FUSION_VAN-RYSEL_AIRBAG-crash-test_7.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
When is it coming?<\/h2>\n