The UK’s best Gravel Cycling Festival ? – Stone Circle

The Stone Circle Gravel Cycling Festival

This week Ian and Trevor are on the road to Stone Henge! The Stone Circle gravel festival is the best cycling festival in the UK and the boys are clearly enjoying the vibes. With a fancy dress hill climb (hiding 2x national champion @edlaverack in it!) and a chance to hang out with friends like @Bikefitjames its the best event of the year so far.

Big Shout out to Jim Hayward for the Druid costume in the thumbnail – His IG is https://www.instagram.com/JIMRIDESBICYCLES

Our Road Diary videos will be behind the scenes vlogs of our travels, adventures and things going on a Vielo HQ. Find out what goes on before you arrive on site or to start your first ride.

Award Winning Indie boutique bicycle brand Vielo was formed by Father and Son team Ian and Trevor Hughes in 2017. Launching in 2018 the two industry veterans have built the Vielo brand around their Road and Gravel bikes, which are exclusively designed for 1x drive trains. Winning the BEST gravel bike of the year 2024/25

For 2025 Ian and Trevor from Vielo Bikes are planning on being on the road A LOT which is why we’ve partnered with Glorious Gravel UK. We’re bringing our award winning Road and Gravel bikes to you! https://www.vielo.cc/

We’ve got a full events calendar, a new exhibition set up and a some new product to show off. Most of all, we want to get out and enjoy being in amongst customers in the UK Road and Gravel bike scene. Check out Vielo.cc to find out where we’ll be next.

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Stone Circle 2026 – https://www.stonecircle.cc/

With thanks;

** Columbia EU ** – for supplying our Kit for this events season. https://www.columbiasportswear.co.uk/

Music Credits :

Song: Cartoon, AC13, Jessee – Made For The Game (ft. KAZHI)
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Song: Tollef – Take Our Time [NCS Release]
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[Music] I I got to say, hats off. I think it’s the best travel event I’ve ever attended. Yeah, I think so, too. [Applause] [Music] Morning.
Hey, it’s an early one this morning.
Uh it is actually. It’s pretty good.
Busy.
What’s the crack today then? So, at the moment, we’ve got some bikes to uh get ready for the next gravel event, which is called the Stone Circle, and it’s located at Old Serum between Alsbury, between Ssbury rather, and obviously Stone Circle, Stonehenge. Quite a long drive down, but before we drive down, we got to pack the trailer, pack the car. There’s bikes to box up. We got three bikes to go out today. Yeah, we got a lot of bikes going out at the moment. And the first delivery of these is due next week.
Yep.
Frame sets are leaving today. So, we’re air freighting them in. They should be arriving next week. And then I’ve got quite a few builds to do when they arrive.
Yeah. AJ’s off next week, so you’ve got a lot of builds to do. Thanks. That’s fine.
I’m good with that.
Everything’s ready to go. We just need the frames to arrive and then we can get some customers out on bikes. But yeah, I’m I’ve not done Stone Circle before, so I’m really looking forward to it.
It’s a cool vibe. It really really is a great vibe. It’s uh we’ve got some new stuff to set up there. We’ve got some a new kind of cool hangout zone and it’s very much that vibe at Stone Circle. Uh last year weekend looks great, dry weather and just a great vibe. These are new to bean bags. Right then just arrived on site and look at this. ‘s already done half the self. Morning. Time to call this. Is
that then? I’ve got it all set up already.
Hang on. How did those water bags get filled?
By magic.
Yeah, magic. I’ve been caught many things. Magic’s not one of them. It’s pretty cool here. It’s pretty good venue.
I love it.
So, this is set up for Stone Circle. So, it’s currently about 12:00ish and we’ve got to set all this up cuz a lot of people are arriving from 2, I believe it is. So, we are at the top of one of the National Trust sites.
It was the National Trust. Different challenges when it comes to setting this one up. We’re not allowed any tent pegs in the ground. We’re not allowed to put anything, any flag poles, nothing to go in the ground. So, we are using our trusty water bags and steel plates that we’ve got. to try and hold the whole thing down. It’s actually tied to the truck as well. And one of us is camping tonight. Uh I think that’s me tonight.
You doing? I don’t mind doing both.
And then we do swapes.
I don’t mind doing both.
The view, the ambiance, you can’t
We’re fighting for it. We’re fighting for it. Going to hide in the truck for a minute because it is so windy. We can’t film anything outside really. Uh we probably could with some better mics, but to be honest with you, with the PA system and the music, I mean, the DJ is amazing. But um yeah, we just it’s too loud for us to film outside. One of us is going to sleep in the roof tent tonight and then we’ll alternate and the other person can have the hotel. I think Ian wants to have the um the full festival experience today so he wants the uh rooftop tent and then tomorrow I’ll do the breakdown uh and Sunday morning I can drive back uh and I’m towing the trailer back. But yeah, such a good feed. Like such a good festival vibe. And it’s only4 to 5 on the first day. Tomorrow is the big one. Tomorrow those that heading out on the longest ride are leaving at 4:00 a.m. So I’m quite pleased I’m going to be in the hotel tonight cuz I’m not getting here till at least 8. Right. There’s a load of people on the stand. I’m going to go and say hello. [Music] already cry my tears enough for an ocean. I’ve been in the cold rain on my brain. I’m still on my feet and tall like a mountain. I am undefeated and made for the game. Oh. Still on my feet and like a mountain. I am on the go. So windy, but you’re having fun.
It’s great. It’s great vibe. I mean, compared to last year, last year was a great event, but the layout here is so much better. Uh, and it’s it’s cool. Love it. Absolutely love it. Sunshining, bit breezy, but hey, it’s beer.
Get it in. Uh,
but that’s always been your thing, hasn’t he? He’s one by only.
Behind the scenes. Behind the scenes. Where is he?
James has popped over for a chat. Right. It is evening. Had a good day.
It’s been a brilliant day. What a turnout, isn’t it? The weather’s been great. Little breezy, but great vibe, great buzz. What is going on over there? Well, it’s the start of the hill climb. So, it’s fancy dress hill climb. So, we’re going to go and watch a load of people uh race up the hill in whatever fancy dress costumes they’ve got. They’re nuts.
They are not.
Are you How nuts is that? The guy, one of the lads from Carbon Bike Repair is dressed as a druid with two bike boxes strapped to his back to make it look like he’s got a stone from Stonehenge. Hey, look. Clouds. Apparently, they’ve got a lemon style start. So, they’ve got a 100 meter run and then they’re straight onto the bikes to race up the hill. I’ll see who win. [Music] [Music] Lovely. Nice fight. [Music] I think [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] morning. bit of a different one for me this one in that normally like normally at shows and events we’re up at the crack of dawn with everybody else going out for their ride and we see people leaving uh briefly and they go off and enjoy their event and then we don’t get to see people in the afternoon. You know, we have to be up and we have to be there. The first riders I think were leaving at 4:00 a.m. and then 6:00 a.m. and then at 10:00 a.m. I think so. He’s been on site first thing this morning. I stayed in the hotel just down the road and I haven’t been needed this morning. So, I’ve had a lazy morning and that never happens. It feels a bit weird. So, I’ve had a really chilled morning. Um, I got to enjoy breakfast. Had a bit of a lie in. Unbelievable. So, anyway, now I’m going to roll onto the site. I think there’s an air base over there. So, there’s a huge airplane turning around. Yeah. Yeah. So, I’m going to roll at the site, try and get Ian a coffee on the way if he hasn’t already got one set up and wait for everybody to come back after their rides. So, I think the distances today were 200k, 130k, and I think there was a 65k as well. And they had 880 people signed up. So, if normally around 20% of that drop out, so yeah, it’ be good. It’d be uh good. The weather, the wind has dropped because the wind yesterday was biblical. After 8 hours in the wind, it’s pretty tiring. Um, I mean it was sunny, it was gorgeous. Um, the music was playing all night. The hill climb was great. Like the guy in the druid costume was so good. Uh, I think he won a prize as well. So, the best outfit, which is Ace. It’s a lot more peaceful and quiet today. Now, everybody’s gone out and enjoying their ride. Look at the venue. Look at I’ll have a wander up the top of the castle over that side in a bit. But look how stunning around here is. We’re in Salisbury’s uh Salsbury. however you say it is a medieval city cuz it’s right next to Stonehenge as well and we’re right next to this castle. There he is.
Morning. Look, you know,
lad’s come all the way down 3-hour drive to come and see us. Look,
happy days.
Yeah.
Very chilled start to this morning, which is pretty cool. Um, everybody’s out riding. DJ’s got some nice chill vibes. family day. Kids are out playing with their bubbles and winning um toys from the guys at Stolen Goat, which is cool. And um yeah, it’s just nice to chill out. We got a uh the gentleman’s come across to see us today um because he knew we’re here and he’s looking at buying a bike anyway. So that’s one of the beauties of being on the road a lot this year is that people have a chance to work out where we’re going to be and rather than coming all the way up to Newcastle
on the line. A so close. First riders are starting to head back in now from the short and well those that went out on the long but ended up just doing the medium. Uh there a few that have had a couple of crashes. I don’t think anybody that’s completed the long yet has uh has come back in. Um but most of the bikes that have come through have been on ShraMM which is quite interesting. That’s kind of expected in the gravel scene at the moment. Although Oh, here we go. There’s some fast lads coming up. So first riders are on the way back in. Uh which is pretty cool. Most of them have just done the medium and uh the medium and short one. They haven’t finished the long one yet.
Yeah.
Um but they’ve been out early,
but it’s 4:00. 4:00 starts. But you saw I didn’t see. Stupid. I’m so sleep. Um so this is the first time we’ve actually had a chance to show the new race editions, the 13 speed.
Yeah.
How do you think they’ve been received so far? I think honestly the feedback has been great because there’s not many opportunities for customers can actually see a full range of rival of Force and Red. So even the brands that are here, they’ve got like a mixture of bits and pieces. So we’ve actually got each spec, each price point, each value, and we can kind of walk people through that. And it’s been really, really well recently. Yeah. I think um most people that have seen the bike so far as well, I think the teal has been the preferred color. Yep. Yeah, definitely. Yes. Yeah, for sure.
But similarly, I also think that Force has been the most popular group set of the the new the two new that will launch.
It’s definitely hit the sweet spot, you know, without a doubt in terms of the style of it, the blip button on the shifters, the crank set, the the whole thing is like it sits really really well. Rival is fantastic. Um the crank set is pretty weighty. M we’re finding we’ve also had some customers inquire about can we do mix and match. So could we do a rival group set with a force crank on it? They want a carbon crank. Yes, of course we can. And even somebody was asking if we could use the force shifters cuz they’ve got the blip buttons on a rival build. Well, of course we can. We can do all of that. Yeah, we can do any bespoke quote. It just takes you just got to let us know what you want.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And I think that’s one of the beauties about the ShraMM group set. Now with a 13-speed direct mount, uh we can do that and there’s not many brands that have got that option list that we can offer. So that was a really really interesting learning by getting feedback from customers and it’s one of the reasons why we love being at this kind of event cuz you get a chance to chat with customers and listen to their feedback and you don’t get that when you’re working in the office or via email. You might get it via a phone call possibly, but you get a great great amount of feedback from customers which helps us then kind of develop and doing what we’re doing and fine-tuning it as well. Yep. So, in terms of events, this is I think by no discredit to anything else that we’ve already done, but I think it is the most festival vibe of all the events that we’ve done this year so far. I I genuinely agree. Um, you know, the kind of layout we I was here last year. This you weren’t here last year. uh the the kind of setup was very very slightly different and they’ve tweaked it and refined it. So the way the brands are laid out, the food stations are laid out, the kind of seating area. Um it’s such a cool vibe. You got DJ going on in the background, you know, producing an amazing vibe as well.
She’s very good. She is very very good. Yeah. Damn it.
As a former DJ, I think we can get you on the decks at some point.
Um I I I need to learn how to mix that stuff. I’m still old school vinyl. I mean, the stuff that they’ve got, the technology they’ve got now with the mix decks is uh
is another level. Uh but I I can look forward to that at some stage. But I think overall um it is really really cool. They’ve got about what 800 riders or so.
Uh they all set off at various stages, different lengths. Uh and then kind of this afternoon tonight will be the big gathering where people can come back, have something to eat, and we get a chance to have a chat with customers again. And it is it’s such a it’s a it’s a great venue, great vibe. I keep on using that word vibe because it is
it is it’s a vi it’s an energy. It’s like
it’s you know it’s not dead easy but people put events on that have long distances that don’t have a social element to them at all whereas this has two nights of really good social element. You actually get to hang out with people. So we did a piece with J Bike Fit James is what everybody knows him on YouTube as for his channel. Um and it was cool just to hang out with him cuz we’ve known James from supplying him with other brands for since he bought the shop.
Yeah. uh sort of you know to hang out and chat with him uh and other people that we’ve seen that we know from other shows and stuff like that.
It’s just nice to hang out a little bit as well.
Actually talking with James kind of just reminding me a little piece we did cuz it’s kind of uh I love talking with James. He’s he’s he’s on it. He’s he’s to
straight talking
totally on it. And I think we were kind of discussing we’ll kind of bring it to this channel as well. Um, obviously there were a lot of brands launching new ranges of bikes with the 13-speed group set and there were many, many brands that were coming out with some claims. One in particular, and you know, we we want to produce honesty and integrity without marketing BS. And there’s one brand that came out, I’m not going to name the name, but they came out with a statement that this is the most arrow bike. Go on.
The most arrow. If you can work out who it was, put it in the comments.
Well, yeah. So their claim was it was the most aero gravel bike released and it’s more arrow than this brand. And one of the journalists challenged them and said, “Okay, which brand is it?” They said, “No, we can’t tell you.” So it’s like, “Come on, guys. You know what?” But anyway, that was kind of my boiling my tea a little bit. Yeah. These these things happen. There is no what a finishing in all the way to the
It’s uh there’s an airfield here that’s doing paragliding as well. Just people spiraling out the sky.
Yeah, they’re doing parachute jumps. I mean it’s a big parachute jump school. Yesterday it was a bit too windy for them, but they’re they’re up and out now. So up to about 2,000 ft and then dropping half a dozen uh parachuters off individually and they’re landing just over there. uh which is uh another part of the entertainment to kind of watch as well. Some of the riders coming in because they’re they’re full gas. Some started at stupid o’ this morning, some started at mid. Um and it’s just again they’re all giving it large
and there’s some more activities planned tonight as well.
Yes. Thanks Red Bull. Thanks Red Bull. It’s super hot today and yaking bikes with people are just rolling in. They’ve still got enough energy to actually be able to talk. Um customer buy a bike today as well which is cool. Yeah. What a great atmosphere and what a great festival. There aren’t many cycling festivals like this in the UK. Yeah, there aren’t many cycling festivals like this in the UK and there should be more. I was chatting to uh Alex from GCN. I was saying the same thing like there should be a big cycling festival like Sea Otter in the UK because these guys prove there’s an appetite for it. Um you add road discipline to this and downhill and mountain biking, it would just be superb. It is golden hour. So it’s that just as the sun’s starting to set behind the hill.
Yeah.
There’s still a lot of people hanging around though, which is good.
No, it’s good. I think they’ve all kind of finished the ride. gone for a shower, coming back for something to eat, bit of entertainment going on. Uh DJ again playing some great sets, and it is that golden hour. The temperatur cooled down a little bit more now, which is great. It’s not so stinking hot as it was. It was like
I think a couple of riders were suffering a bit
for the heat, but overall, um I I’ve got to say, hats off. I think this is the best travel event I’ve ever attended. Yeah, I think so, too. Now, the next one that might make over a year is they’re just starting the jousting competition. I’m predicting at least one collarbone that’s going to go. But we’ll see how this works out. We’ll check that one out. Yeah. [Music] Right. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Sun’s setting. DJ’s starting to uh wind it down a bit as well. Officially, there’s about 20 minutes, half an hour left of the event. Um, but it’s nearly 9:00 at night. And as much as I’d love to just sit and chill out like everybody else is, we’ve got to get the stand down, which we’ve already started doing. Breaking all this down. Uh it’s quite a long drive back. It’s about seven hours or so back tomorrow. So I’m going to get up early doors and um break the back of it. How you getting on?
It’s good. Packing down. DJ’s starting to wind it down a bit as well.
Are we ready for prize?
Yeah. Yeah. Prize coming up and we’re just packing the bikes away. Uh they will go away really neat. Get them all loaded, ready for travel back
and yeah, just kind of reflecting on the a great weekend. So yes, Stone Circle. We’ll see you next year.
Damn right.
Let’s get it done. [Music]