Van Rysel, Decathlons performance cycling brand, has spent the past few months building a dedicated mountain bike operation and R&D team in the French Alps, and its first bike suggests it isnt planning to enter the MTB market quietly.The brand has revealed the new RCR-XC, its first mountain bike, which will be raced by the Decathlon Ford team from 2027. Rather than easing into the market with a familiar 29in XC race bike, Van Rysel has jumped straight into one of 2026s hottest topics: 32in wheels.That alone makes the RCR XC an interesting proposition, but Van Rysel is also making some fairly bold performance claims about it.On top of that, the new bike looks to be sporting new wheels from Zipp, and a production 32in fork from RockShox, suggesting we'll be seeing a lot more 32in bikes and aftermarket componentry in the coming months.Why 32in wheels? The RCR-XC will be raced by the Decathlon Ford team from 2027, giving Van Rysel a direct route into top-level cross-country racing. Van Rysel Van Rysel says development began by analysing race data collected since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.Its engineers focused on three areas: speed, power and time. That process led Van Rysel towards 32in wheels.The brand believes the larger wheel size can offer a real-world performance advantage, and it has developed the RCR-XC around that idea rather than adapting an existing 29in platform.There are still plenty of details missing from the announcement, including geometry, suspension travel and complete bike weights, but Van Rysel has already released some eye-catching figures.It says the RCR-XC carbon frame is 230g lighter in a size medium than the 29in Rockrider currently raced by the Decathlon Ford team.The frame stiffness has also been tuned through testing with the teams riders. Van Rysel says the development process has involved Zipp, RockShox and Vittoria.What's more, the wheels pictured here aren't on SRAM's site, suggesting there's going to be a plethora of new OE (original equipment) and aftermarket kit ready to bolt onto 32in wheel bikes very soon.Similarly, we can only assume the RockShox fork used on the RCR-XC build is a new 32in-compatible SID that's yet to hit the market.Aero gains on an XC bikeVan Rysel has also brought some of its road-racing thinking to mountain biking.The RCR-XC has spent time in the wind tunnel, with the brand claiming it saves 15.5 watts at 35km/h compared to the teams 2026 mountain bike.From 2027, the RCR-XC will be raced by the Decathlon Ford team, with riders including Luca Martin, Samara Maxwell and Savilia Blunk.For now, though, this is a preview rather than a full launch. Van Rysel says the team will continue developing the bike throughout the 2027 World Cup before it eventually goes on sale.Pricing and a release date have yet to be announced.Van Rysels first mountain bike clothing range will also go on sale in Europe in 2027, with other markets set to follow.