'The wheel that Tadej asked for' - Enve officially releases new SES 4.5 Pro wheelset ahead of the Tour de France

Enve has launched a brand new wheelset today, in the form of the SES 4.5 Pro. Just in time for UAE Team Emirates - XRG, and World Champion Tadej Pogačar, to use at the Tour de France.

This release is the latest in a slew of pre-tour component releases, in particular following on from Roval's release of the new Rapide Sprint and CLX III wheelsets last week, which Remco Evenepoel and his teammates will race on.

The wheels officially launched Thursday, but the team has actually been using them all season already. We spotted a prototype wheel being used earlier in the year, its distinct silver spokes alerting us to it, but now we know what the new wheels are.

They don't have a bad track record this year, already winning 25+ races in 2025.

In previous years, riders have raced on the Enve SES 4.5; that model will remain in the Enve range and sit alongside the SES 4.5 Pro, the new wheel which has been developed with feedback from Pogačar and his teammates.

The Pro looks to build on the 4.5 platform and turns things up to 11 pretty much across the board. Enve 'Pro' products indicate they have been designed in direct collaboration with pro riders and teams, and the new wheels join the SES Aero Pro handlebar in this category.

Enve claims the new wheels are lighter, stiffer, more aero and stronger. There are upgrades and improvements all over, and it appears to be a serious overhaul all told.

Cyclingnews understands the wheels will not be available to buy until 2026, but no specific date is given at present.

The Enve SES 4.5 wheels are some of the best road bike wheels, and we included them in our CN Labs aero wheel wind tunnel testing.

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All new everything

The Enve SES 4.5 has been one of the most successful wheelsets of the last few years. Pogačar and his teammates have won the world's biggest races on them, but Enve says the team wanted a wheel that built on the 4.5's aerodynamic performance while matching the low weight of a climbing wheel.

This is an overall trend with top-end wheels at the moment. Overall weights are coming down to a place that wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. 1295 grams for a 49/55mm aero wheelset would have been unheard of, and it surely provides an advantage. It's a similar set of numbers on paper to the new Vision Metron 45 RS wheels, which launched earlier in the year after being ridden in pro races.

The new 4.5 Pro wheels use higher modulus, lighter carbon fibre, and the 23.5mm wide internal rim shape, which the brand says meets the ETRTO recommendation for 28mm tyres, has also been revised. The new rims are actually 1mm shallower and narrower than the standard 4.5 model.

Enve has also given the wheels a 'mini hook' bead, switching away from hookless, and introduced a thinner inner rim channel. These changes save 50 grams of weight per rim and should, in theory, increase tyre bead retention in the event of a major loss of tyre pressure. The rims are also optimised around a 28mm tyre, which is interesting given Pogačar has often used a larger volume tyre, usually 30mm, in races.

Enve has also developed a new hubset for the wheels named the Innerdrive Pro, which shaves 60 grams over the existing Innerdrive hub. The front hub weighs in at 87 grams, whilst the rear weighs 194 grams. The diameter of the 40-tooth drive ratchet has been reduced to save weight, whilst material has been milled out to also drop weight.

It's not just the hub shells that have received attention, though. A new ratchet spring is also now in place to provide the required amount of ratchet engagement, but with minimal drag.

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Enve has developed Pro Ceramic bearings with a 'leading bearing vendor'. The bearings, which have a five-year warranty, use ceramic balls with a claimed sphericity of .000005 – inch. Bearing cages are made from a low-friction polyamide, and the races themselves are hardened stainless steel, which the brand says is required to prevent the races from being pitted over time by the hard ceramic ball bearings.

Enve claims that the steel races are burnished over time by the balls, which can lead to the hubs becoming more efficient or faster, for want of a better description, something that's often said about Chris King hubs.

A non-contact inner bearing seal has been chosen, whilst the outer is a low-contact one, aiding durability over time but adding a small amount of drag. Perhaps non-contact outboard seals will be fitted for the most critical stages or time trials.

We recently spotted an Instagram reel, embedded above, which shows Pogačar spinning his front wheel. It caught our eye at the time, and it does indeed look to be very low drag; it spins forever. Whilst an unloaded spin test isn't the be-all and end-all, it's certainly a morale boost at the very least.

Enve has included several testing and performance graphs for the wheels in the press material, which we have included below. They show the wheels' performance against other big-name competitors, which is interesting.

There isn't a full breakdown of testing procedures, but Enve cites working with aerodynamicist Simon Smart since 2009 on wheel designs.

What the brand does say is that they have conducted in-frame aero testing (wheels in a bike) and at elite and amateur speeds. Wind tunnel and CFD analysis, as well as on-road testing, have also been carried out.

The UAE Team Emirates XRG team has already hit the ground running with the wheels this season; it's only a matter of time before we see how the wheels perform under Pogačar at the Tour, which kicks off on Saturday.

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