Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) has dominated the Life Time Grand Prix gravel sequence for a second straight season, sweeping the primary 4 rounds in 2023 to steer sequence title and money payout with a begin at Large Sugar Gravel in 4 weeks. He’ll skip this weekend’s sixth spherical at The Rad Filth Fest in Colorado, which has no bearing on his factors complete, and lead Crew USA for glory on the second version of the UCI Gravel World Championships.
To this point Swenson’s 2023 has been fairly candy. He has nearly wrapped up a the general Life Time sequence for a second time, solely needing to take the beginning on the season-ending Large Sugar Gravel on October 21. He defended his title at SGT GRVL after which gained the stars-and-stripes jersey on the inaugural elite males’s US gravel championships. He additionally put his title within the document books with a brand new course document at Leadville Path 100 MTB, an occasion he gained for a 3rd time, smashing the seven-year commonplace by somewhat greater than quarter-hour.
Swenson has a set of nationwide titles as a junior, under-23 and elite rider in cross-country mountain biking and a silver medal from UCI Mountain Bike World Championships within the 2019 workforce relay, and now the hunt for a person world title strikes to gravel.
“I’m going over there [Italy] with excessive expectations,” Swenson instructed Cyclingnews earlier than his deliberate flight to Italy on Friday, 9 days earlier than the elite males’s race on October 8.
“I do know it’s somewhat little bit of a special race, a special type of racing. It’s somewhat extra of a street race in some methods, however there’s somewhat bit extra gravel this yr which I feel ought to swimsuit all of us from the US a bit higher. I really feel the racing over right here [in the US] is basically aggressive. But it surely’s additionally somewhat bit totally different type of racing than they’ve over there in Europe.”
Like all the opposite rivals quickly to swoop into north-east Italy, Swenson has solely seemed on the gravel course in Veneto on paper and on the biking app, Komoot. There’s much more climbing this yr, up from 800 metres to 1,900 metres of elevation acquire, and the ultimate climb is simply 5km from the end at Pieve di Soligo. There may be additionally plenty of pavement combined with gravel ‘sectors’ and never a real North American gravel grinder.
“That’s the primary distinction, , that you just’re racing on gravel for just about everything of the occasion over right here. It appears with the UCI occasions, there’s been extra pavement and a special ‘type’.”
Swenson was eager to journey early to regulate to the time zone and to see the precise course circumstances firsthand. He mentioned the course would additionally assist decide how Crew USA would meld and type technique. Final yr 10-rider groups from Belgium and Italy rode as the primary locomotives within the peloton, the 2 groups taking half of the highest 10 spots, together with 1-2 by Gianni Vermeersch for Belgium and Daniel Oss for Italy. The US was represented by simply two elite males and Easter Griffin was the highest finisher of the pair in forty sixth place.
“We nonetheless have to iron all that out, but it surely appears like there’s a superb handful of the fellows who’re prepared to race as a workforce, which I feel can be our best power,” Swenson surmised about a big elite squad that could possibly be as many as 15 riders.
“As soon as we’re over there, see the course and work out the place every particular person could be most helpful and the way everybody could be part of the squad. It is form of onerous to actually nail down a plan till you may actually get eyes on the course and get a really feel for the right way to race.”
A begin listing was not out there but for Swenson to analyse his competitors, however he wasn’t overly involved simply but about ‘who else’ was in Italy for the 169km race. Just one title was talked about, Wout van Aert (Belgium), who gained his first-ever gravel race at Houffa Gravel in August.
“You recognize, going up towards somebody like Wout, if he’s racing, and he’s the most effective on the earth, it’s gonna be onerous to beat him one on one. However I feel if we had a workforce and we raced collectively, something’s attainable,” Swenson mentioned.
“I simply heard rumours like Wout’s [van Aert] racing and possibly there’s a few different WorldTour guys. For my part, these would be the greatest competitors, together with a number of guys who race gravel and possibly a few mountain bike racers. I’m form of nervous about myself. I really feel like I don’t need to look at the beginning listing till you get actually near the race. It’s what it’s. It’s higher to fret about your individual prep work and kind it out as you get nearer.”
Crossover shift
Swenson was an apparent alternative to participate within the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships, however somewhat greater than a month from the gravel contest, he was certainly one of two elite males named to fill open spots on the roster for the Highway World Championships in Wollongong, Australia.
“Final yr, I used to be centered on simply going to Highway Worlds, and I didn’t need to chew off greater than I may chew. It will have been an excessive amount of.”
Although an off-road specialist throughout mountain biking and gravel, Swenson was tapped by USA Biking’s CEO Brendan Quirk due to “he has a World Tour engine; we all know he’s not intimidated by something or anybody”. On the finish of the 266.9km Highway Worlds contest, Swenson was the second-best positioned males’s rider for Crew USA, in a bunch 6:20 off the profitable tempo set by Remco Evenepoel.
Final yr’s competitors for the rainbow jersey on gravel became a full-on street race, and proved Quirk fairly correct concerning the phenomenon of “crossover riders diving in from different disciplines”, which he used to explain Swenson racing Highway Worlds. This performed out in reverse on the first UCI Gravel Worlds as 9 of the highest 10 finishers have been street professionals.
“The purpose this yr was to clearly win the Grand Prix, but it surely’s very nice to have it carried out. I simply must cross the beginning line and end at Large Sugar. It’s good to take the stress off. It’s good to not have any stress there and simply have the ability to concentrate on World Championships.”