Riding ENVE Stone Circle

As the home of ENVE, Saddleback has sponsored Stone Circle since it began. Influencers and Saddleback ambassadors Juliet Elliott and Chris Hall, who will be riding as event veterans in 2025, explain how they prepared for Stone Circle 2024.

Stone Circle 2024 was an idyllic, sun-drenched event on perfect sugar gravel, with participants testing themselves on routes that ranged from a fun 50km jaunt to a challenging 220km epic. They enjoyed views of Salisbury plain and Stone Henge as they rode, then ended the day at Old Sarum Fort, munching on artisan pizza and enjoying a well-earned pint.

The idyllic feel of the event hinged on excellent preparation on the part of the organisers, who arranged regular feed stations and teams ready to repair bikes at the start and at intervals along the course, and on the part of participants, who chose their kit with care.

The right bike for the job

Juliet did the 160km Historic Route and opted for a Marin Headlands gravel bike, which she paired with ENVE wheels, a 3D printed Posedla saddle and 700 x 44c WTB Raddler tyres. Overall, she was pleased with her choice.

“It’s quite a nice, fast rolling route, because there’s a lot of wide, gravel roads with quite fine gravel sand, so you can get up quite a bit of speed if you’re with a good group, which I was,” she explained. “My tyres were fast rolling as well and quite comfortable on that bike, so it was easy just to speed along and keep up a nice pace.”

Meanwhile, Juliet’s riding companions, Anto Butt and James McLearie, strongly recommended opting for a mixed wheel setup. “I rode a Stigmata Santa Cruz with a lot of Chris King components, with a mullet on the rear to get me up the hills. It was good, it was fun, it was fast. You definitely need a mullet on this type of route,” said Anto.

James said of his wheelset, “The gravel race wheels are a bit lighter, a bit faster rolling. You feel it on the hills, they definitely make a little bit of difference to help you get up there quick.” He ruminated that he could have done with bigger, 45 or 50mm tyres, but that 40mm were the best he could pair with his frame.

Chris Hall clearly agreed that bigger tyres were needed, as he opted for an ENVE 3.4 wheelset, with Chis King hubs and 45mm Schwalbe G-One Overland tyres. He also added a whole load of bling to make his bike stand out amongst the crowd of dialled in gravel steeds, including an ENVE bar, seat post and stem, as well as a Shimano GRX 2x groupset with a Wolf Tooth RoadLink in it, to be able to put a cassette on it.

Essential apparel

The influencers sported a bewildering range of brands, but one thing all of them quoted as a gravel essential was cargo bib shorts. Chris said, “I’m a big believer that, for anything like this, cargo bibs are amazing because you can carry more stuff. Food, spares, tools, whatever it is, cargo bibs allow you to carry more, which is very useful and important.”

Juliet’s party unanimously agreed, with Anto saying, “That’s all I wear now, just cargo bibs, I don’t wear normal bibs anymore, because it’s so handy having the pockets.”

They also commented on the extreme heat of the day, with Juliet explaining that she’d opted for a very lightweight jersey especially and wasn’t wearing a base layer. Both Anto and James wore base layers, though, mentioning the importance of separating their sweat away from their bodies for the purposes of comfort.

Shoe-wise, they all had slightly different preferences. Chris opted for specialist MTB shoes made for wide feet, Juliet chose gravel shoes with a gum sole, moulded to her feet, while James chose MTB shoes for a bit more flexibility when walking.

Must-have kit

However well-spaced the repair stations, break downs were going to happen on a course as long as Stone Circle, over mixed ground, with riders of all abilities taking part. Luckily, Good Samaritan Chris Hall was on hand to help!

Chris kindly fixed 10 different bikes, tackling everything from broken chains, to snapped mechs and mech hangers, tyre punctures and tubeless fails. He said, “I think that’s the best thing I had, the ability to be able to fix people’s stuff, because this is meant to be fun, not a race. You see someone stuck and you help them out, that’s my theory. At some point, I hope someone does it for me.”

Many of Saddleback's team will also be riding Stone Circle as veterans this year, having wet their feet in the 2024 event. Read on to find out how our riders, with varying levels of fitness and experience, got on.