Road Race Bike vs Endurance Bike vs Aero Bike – Which Road Bike Should You Choose For 2026?

Not all road bikes are created equal! If you’re in the market for a new road bike should you choose an endurance road bike, a road race bike or an aero bike?

As Van Rysel have recently released the new 2026 Van Rysel EDR CF Ultra Endurance bike we thought we’d see how it compares to the RCR-R road race bike and RCR-F road race bike to see which one suits which kind of rider best.

We also chat to a bike fitting expert to see the riding benefits of an endurance bike vs road bike.

0:00 Intro
0:13 New endurance road bike
0:26 Endurance bike vs road race bike
1:50 Endurance bike vs aero bike tube profiles
3:10 Which road bike wheel depth is best?
5:05 Endurance bike vs road bike tyre width
6:48 Road bike gearing
8:33 Endurance bike vs road race bike geometry
9:54 Which road bike is best for your riding?
10:33 Are Endurance road bikes slow?
11:15 What makes an endurance road bike comfortable?
12:12 What percentage of road cyclists should use an endurance road bike?
13:30 What type of road bike is best?
14:40 Outro

This video contains paid promotion on behalf of Van Rysel, to find out more information about any of the bikes head to: https://www.vanryselcycling.com/

We may earn a commission when purchasing through affiliate links in this description.

Subscribe to Cycling Weekly here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CyclingWeekly1?sub_confirmation=1

More at:
Cycling Weekly: http://www.cyclingweekly.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CyclingWeekly
Instagram: https://instagram.com/cyclingweeklymagazine
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cyclingweekly
Email: cycling@futurenet.com

#cycling #bikes #bicycles

This is the brand new Van Rezel road bike, but unlike when the RCRR launched or the RCRF, this one’s flown a little bit more under the radar. Why is that? Well, probably because it’s an endurance road bike, and in the past, they haven’t been seen as an overly sexy choice. But in 2025, is all that about to change? What is the best bike for you and your riding? Is it a road race bike? Is it an endurance road bike? Or is it an aerrow road bike? Well, you’re in the right place to find out. This is Cycling Weekly. Let’s get into it. Buying any new bike represents a sizable investment. But what exactly does the term road bike mean in 2025? It seems to be an umbrella term that refers to everything from what the pros are riding to all road bikes. They’re a story for another day. It doesn’t help that with every new release of a bike, there seems to be a load of marketing talk to say X bike is the best one for you. Y bike will make you 15 seconds quicker. Z bike is 3 million% stiffer. Well, today with the help of Van Rezel’s recently updated range, we’re going to try to cut through the marketing jargon and help you get on the right bike for your riding. We’re even going to talk to a bike fitting expert to see whether that bike should be a road race bike, an endurance road bike, or an aero road bike, and what the main differences are between them. Let’s start here. This is the new Van Rezel EDRCF Ultra, an endurance bike. But what does that actually mean? How does it differ from these two bikes next to it? Now, one of the most obvious differences between this and let’s say the RCRF Aerobike is the tube profile. So, this has got quite round profile tubes, whereas these are really deep bladed ones that are designed to cut through the wind with as little resistance as possible. Now, aerodynamics in cycling are very important. At over 20 km an hour, wind resistance is going to be the biggest force that you have to overcome. But did you know that about 80% of your drag comes from your body and not your bike? These bladed profiles on the RCRF are absolutely excellent at cutting through the wind, but they do come with a few caveats. For example, compared to the tube profiles on this, they’re going to be heavier, they’re going to be stiffer, and they’re going to be less good at soaking up some of those road vibrations. You will quickly realize that there’s a going to be a theme developing here where the RCRR kind of takes a middle ground. It’s got some bladed profiles, for example, this down tube and then it’s got some thinner profile tubes, for example, the seat stays and chain stays for that comfort at the rear end. Moving on to another spec choice before we dive into the wonderful world of geometry is going to be wheel depth. because you’ll have noticed that this EDR endurance bike has much shallower wheels and that is fairly typical for a bike of this genre. An endurance bike is typically designed for lower speeds and hence it ships with these 35 mil deep wheels. In comparison, the RCRR has 45 mil wheels fitted to it and this RCRF Aero bike has 62 mil wheels fitted to it. And basically what this gives you is a pretty good idea of what each bike is tailored towards and what type of riding it’s going to be best for. So with the Aero bike with its super deep wheels, that’s going to be really good for if you want to go on fast-paced group rides. If you want to race criteriums or really fast flat road races, those 62 mil wheels, yes, they might get buffed by the wind slightly more than a shallower wheel set, but they’re going to give you that maximum aerodynamic advantage. Then once again, taking the middle ground, we’ve got the RCRR with its 45 mil deep wheels. Now, these are going to be a really nice compromise between aerodynamics and handling characteristics for anyone that’s looking to ride at, let’s say, 25 to 35 km/h. You’ll find that this mid-depth wheel set is a bit more manageable if you want to ride year round and in some pretty gusty conditions. Then we’ve got the shallowest wheels fitted to the endurance road bike. And this is basically because it’s designed for if you’re traveling at slightly lower speeds. So you won’t have quite the same aerodynamic advantage as a set of 62 mil wheels like on the RCRF, but you get the advantage of a shallower wheel set that is a bit lighter, so it feels more quick to accelerate. And then also because more of the wheel is spoke rather than rim, it can soak up more of those road vibrations. Again, helping this bike to be as comfortable as possible. Also contributing to comfort is tire size. And as is generally the case with endurance road bikes, this one can fit much wider tires than a road race bike or an aero road bike. So in fact, this EDRCF Ultra has space for up to 38 mil tires, whereas the other two can fit up to 33 mil tires. What this means is the endurance road bike is quite a lot more versatile. Uh you can maybe even take it on some light gravel if if that’s of interest to you. The general rule is that the faster you go, the narrower you want your tire to be. And if you’re a world tour sprinter riding a bike like the Van Rezel RCRF, then you’ll probably go for a 28 mil tire, maybe even one with a with some trip poles on it like that one. On solo rides though, you’re probably better off with something that’s 30 mil or wider. And it’s worth remembering the tire sizes seem to only be going one way. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more and more 35 mil tires on local club runs and back lanes in the UK. Another advantage of having really wide tire clearances is that you can fit mud guards and still fit that nice plush rubber. So, even if you don’t want to fit 38 mil rubber, it’s still a good idea to have that clearance because then using the mounts, you can fit a set of mud guards and still run some some nice wide, comfortable tires. Another feature that you often find on endurance road bikes is some extra mounting points. And as you’ll see on the down tube of this EDR, it’s got space for an extra extra bottle, little bit of storage for if you’re if you’re going long. Moving down the bike and you’ll find another big difference between endurance bikes and road race bikes and that is gearing. Now, this is something that I think Van Rezel does really well and that’s tailor the chain set sizes to the bike’s intended purpose. So, we’ve got the RCR and the RCRF and they both ship with 52 36 to chain sets. Now, don’t worry if you if that doesn’t mean a lot to you. What it means is that basically on the road race bikes, it’s got more big gears, so you can go faster at a comfortable cadence. Moving on to the EDR, endurance bike, and you’ll find a compact chain set, which is fairly typical for a bike of this design. So, that’s a 50 to big ring and a 34 to little ring. And that gives you more options when things get steep, when when you’re climbing. Moving towards the back and we’ve got another difference. So, the endurance bike has an 1136 to cassette fitted to it. And the road race bikes, well, Shimano road race bikes typically come with 1134 to cassettes. What that means is that the aero bike and the road race bike, if you’re riding in a group where you don’t really get to dictate your pace, there’s smaller gaps in between the gears. And that means that when traveling nice and fast, you’re more likely to be able to find a gear that you can fine-tune your cadence in. Whereas on the endurance bike, you do have slightly bigger gaps, but the tradeoff is that you’ve got more range. So when things get really steep or you’re commuting or you’re carrying more stuff, you’re on a really long ride, you don’t want to dig deep up a climb, you’ve got those options of some bailout gears. And then there is what I think is the biggest difference between an endurance road bike, a road race bike, and an aero bike. and that is geometry. So, what we’re going to do now is pop up on the screen the geometry charts of these three bikes in a size medium. And I know geometry can sometimes seem a bit dry, but it does make a massive difference in how a bike rides. So, I’m going to point out some of the more interesting bits. As you can see, this endurance bike has a shorter top tube and reach figure. That means that the bars will be slightly closer to you as you ride along. What you’ll also find is that the head tube is slightly slacker, putting the front wheel further in front of you, and that is excellent for control and stability. It also has a longer wheelbase, which does much the same thing. And then also a taller head tube, so this bit here, which is going to put you in a slightly more upright position. Now, this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you’re looking for. Lower is often considered faster, but if your back can’t take it, then it can’t take it. And my personal opinion is a comfortable bike is more likely to be faster than an uncomfortable lower one. With that in mind, I thought it’d be good to chat through this with someone who fits these bikes for a living. Let’s go and see what George has to say. Right, George. So, if I’m the average customer walking into the Van Resource Store, how do you help me decide what bike I should be on? What’s the first step? So, the first steps that we take, we ask you what sort of riding you’re going to be doing. So, whether you’re crit racing, whether you’re just looking to raz it around the sort of lanes around around your area, uh, or if you’re looking to do a little bit of longer longer distance riding. Um, and then from there, we also sort of ask price point. So, we look at what sort of budget uh you’re looking at and then from there we we sort of look between between the bikes and which one would suit you best. And I’ve just seen that you’ve got the new EDRCF Ultra out there, an endurance bike, but endurance bikes are slow, right? I would disagree. So, the bike that you are most comfortable riding is the fastest bike for you. So there’s the saying the most aerodynamic position is the aerodynamic position you can hold the longest. Okay. Yeah. Um so yes, you could have an RCRF but only be able to ride it for 30k until your back gives out whereas you could ride the EDR for hours and hours and still have the same average speed. So, we know that the geometry is pretty different between the EDR and the RCR and the RCRF, but what else makes it different to ride? So, you’ve got the carbon layup of the bike, the tube shapes as well, and the geometry of the bike. So, with the RCRF, it’s a lot more race focused, so it’s a very, very low front end. You’ve got much deeper tube shape, so aerodynamics plays a massive part cuz the designed rider for that is your pro alete. um so they’re doing 45 50k an hour average on their on their rides or races. So they need that error advantage. Whereas with the EDR, you’re looking at a um sort of more traditional tube shaping, you’re looking at also a more comfortable carbon layup as well. Mhm. Um, so even though the RCRR and the EDR use the same carbon layup, they do ride completely differently, um, just due to how the carbon’s laid up in the frame. Now, this is a big question and I’m I’m it might be hard to answer. I know you’re not keeping a tally of every rider that comes in here, but out of all the people that you fitted onto bikes, what rough percentage do you think should be on an endurance bike? What percentage on a on a road race bike and on an arrow bike? So, I would say the percentage of endurance bike riders that should be but aren’t necessarily on the right bike is around 80 to 90% of riders. Okay. Um, which is obviously not what you see in the real world. No, not at all. So, what you see is riders on an arrow bike when they can’t ride that that type of bike for for a sustained period of time or at least not in comfort. Aerobikes are very pretty though, aren’t they? And we all do like to emulate the pros. So if you could choose between three, what one are you choosing? For me and for the riding that I do, uh, I’ve actually chosen the EDR, so I ride one myself. You do actually practice what you preach. I do indeed. Very nice. Cool. Well, thank you very much. No. So really, which type of bike is best for you is going to come down to the type of riding that you do and your goals. If you want to race local criteriums and flat road races of one to two hours in length, then the RCRF is the is the obvious choice. If you want to win your local group ride, then again, those aerodynamic profiles will give you a slight advantage. For most of us, though, I feel like the VM RCR is potentially the more versatile choice. This won’t give much up in terms of speed when it comes to racing. But most of us can’t travel at the same speed as the pros and this will be more suitable, more comfortable for if you want to race and then potentially go on a 6-hour group ride at the weekend. Then there’s the endurance road bike. Bikes like this EDR CF Ultra prove that you can can have your cake and eat it. It’s much more versatile than the other bikes with increased tire clearance. It’s got mud guard mounts, and it’s not just a bike for people who want to sit bolt upright and go slowly. You don’t need to be considering multi-day adventures to consider buying one of these over the other two either. In fact, most of us would probably be more comfortable on an endurance road bike. And unless speed is your number one priority, then I think this is probably the one to go for. Let me know in the comments section below whether you would go for a road race bike, an endurance bike, or an aero road bike. And we’ll pop a link to all three of these bikes down in the description. If you like this kind of content, then please give it a like, subscribe to the channel, and we’ll see you next time.