Van Rysel, the in-house performance brand of French sporting-goods giant Decathlon, has unveiled an airbag-equipped aero skinsuit aimed squarely at the WorldTour peloton — a product the Decathlon-CMA CGM team has been quietly testing in races and that the brand says could be on consumer shelves “within two years”.
The system, developed with French airbag specialist In&motion and now branded “AeroBag”, uses an algorithm that triggers inflation in roughly 60 milliseconds of detecting a crash — fast enough, Van Rysel says, to inflate before a rider’s torso, shoulders or hips actually strike the road.
What Van Rysel Has Actually Launched
Van Rysel’s announcement, made alongside the Decathlon-CMA CGM team’s spring campaign, covers a complete one-piece skinsuit with the airbag bladder integrated through the upper torso. Total claimed weight is around 700g, of which roughly 500g is the airbag and electronics package — substantially lighter than MotoGP-style airbag vests, which typically run 1.5kg or more.
According to Cycling Weekly, the brand is trialing the suit on professional athletes throughout 2026 and 2027, with a broader consumer launch likely tied to a Decathlon retail rollout in 2027 or 2028. The brand also told Cyclingnews that the AeroBag-certified bib short version will arrive earlier — before summer 2026 — for road and time-trial use.
Inflation is triggered by an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that monitors acceleration and rotation. The same approach has been used in motorcycle airbag suits since the early 2010s, but adapting it to a thermo-comfortable, aero-flat skinsuit is the engineering breakthrough Van Rysel is claiming.
Why Cycling Has Lagged Motorsport on Airbags
MotoGP made airbag vests mandatory back in 2018. Pro cycling has been stuck on a single, narrow innovation — the foam helmet — for almost 50 years, and yet roughly 70% of cycling injuries don’t involve the head at all. Collarbones, shoulders, hips and ribs make up the bulk of professional and amateur crash injury reports.
That gap is well documented. Our breakdown of the recent NYU Langone study on bike crash trauma admissions found that even when riders are wearing helmets, upper-body fractures dominate emergency-department case loads. Helmets simply weren’t designed to protect anything below the temples — and Van Rysel’s pitch is that an airbag skinsuit is the natural next layer.
The push is also industry-wide. Hövding 4 — the Swedish neck airbag that famously inflates around the head — is being rebooted for a Q4 2026 launch, and Italian apparel brand Castelli is reportedly co-developing a similar bib-short airbag system with a separate WorldTour team.
How an AeroBag Skinsuit Actually Works
The Van Rysel system has three components: an inertial sensor pack at the lower back, a bladder that wraps the upper torso and shoulders, and a CO2-style gas cartridge that fires on crash detection. Once inflated, the bladder pressurises within 60 milliseconds — about three times faster than the old Hövding 1.
Two things make this hard in cycling specifically:
- False positives. A bunny-hop, a violent sprint or a rough cobble can mimic crash signatures on a basic IMU. Van Rysel has spent two years training the algorithm specifically on professional crash data and acceptable race scenarios.
- Aero penalty. The bladder must lie flat against the rider when armed, and not flap when worn under a road jersey or in a TT position. Van Rysel claims the suit’s drag matches a current-generation race skinsuit.
Cartridges are single-use; replacements are expected to retail for around €40 each, with a full skinsuit price floated in the €700–€900 range — premium territory, but in line with current top-tier WorldTour kit.
What This Means For You
Even if a €700 airbag skinsuit isn’t in your near future, the launch tells you three useful things about where rider safety is headed.
- Helmet-only protection is officially yesterday’s baseline. If you’re shopping a new helmet this year, prioritise rotation-impact protection (MIPS, WaveCel or equivalent) — see the PIKIO Si helmet review for what the latest Virginia Tech ratings actually mean.
- Visibility still wins more crashes than airbags ever will. The cheapest and most-effective safety upgrade for most riders is still daytime running lights and reflective trim — our night-riding visibility guide covers what actually moves the needle.
- Watch the mid-tier rollout. Decathlon’s pricing strategy has historically pulled premium tech downmarket — the AeroBag bib short, when it lands, will likely be the first sub-€300 airbag protector in the cycling space.
Key Takeaways
- Van Rysel has unveiled an airbag-equipped aero skinsuit for road racing — the first such system aimed at a WorldTour peloton.
- The system inflates within 60ms via an IMU-triggered gas cartridge, weighing around 700g total.
- Pro testing is underway with Decathlon-CMA CGM; consumer launch is targeted for 2027–2028.
- An AeroBag bib-short version is expected before summer 2026.
- Roughly 70% of cycling injuries are below the head — the segment helmets cannot protect.
For riders looking at the bigger safety picture, our round-up of NYC’s free helmet and lights program is a reminder that even the most basic protective gear is still under-adopted in the cities where most cycling happens.
