From light bikepacking trips to weekend gravel races, the Santa Cruz Stigmata CC Apex Gravel Bike is up for any adventure. This lightweight yet durable bike combines a road and mountain bike, taking technologies and --- from each discipline to create a fast, comfortable, and fun gravel grinder. Designed around a 70mm stem, the long top tube and slack head tube angle adapt progressive mountain bike geometry for stable steering and excellent off-road performance. Its carbon construction is light, strong, and fast, while the Stigmata Rigid Fork is corrected for 40mm suspension to eliminate the major fatigue we feel after hours of trail chatter. This specific model of the new Stigmata is spec'd with the SRAM Apex 1x groupset, giving us a 12-speed range for our adventure of choice. The combination of the 10-44T cassette and 40T chainring provides us with ample gear ratios to ensure we are always in a comfortable gear, whether tackling a steep climb or flying down the other side. When the bottom of our fast descent comes up quicker than expected, we trust in the hydraulic disc brakes to stop us quickly with minimal effort. We start out rolling on 700 x 45c Maxxis Rambler tires, but this bike features a 50mm tire clearance to allow for bigger wheels for bigger off-road fun.