A Marked Man: Swenson Readies Himself For More Road-Style Racing at SBT GRVL

After Unbound Gravel this year, Keegan Swenson was nowhere to be found.

Usually after racing full gas for nine plus hours, most riders linger for at least a few minutes at the finish line. This year, there was even a tented area for elite riders to sit, drink cold water, and share stories from the day.

When Swenson came across the line, in 14th, he kept rolling.

We would later learn that he was fairly bloody and banged-up after going down when he overlapped wheels with Russell Finsterwald. So that was one reason that he wasn’t keen to loiter at the finisher tent.

But mostly Swenson was frustrated and disappointed.

“It didn’t go as I had planned or wanted it to, of course,” Swenson told Velo two months after the Kansas gravel race. “But that race is a unique one, it’s always changing. The race played out so differently than it has in the past. I think we all learned a lot this year.”

What happens in Kansas

Swenson came into the 2024 edition of Unbound Gravel as a clear race favorite. He won the event in 2023, was second the year before, and has been dominating the sport for the past few years.

Nevertheless, his frustration after finishing outside of the top 10 this year wasn’t him being a sore loser. It was more that he’d underestimated how the 200-mile race would play out.

“No one had been willing to work,” Swenson said. “I guess they expected me or Matt [Beers] to do it once people attacked. That’s also how the Europeans race, they’ll just chase the favorites. If anyone attacks, it’s expected that the favorites bring them back. Eventually it was like, ‘I can’t do this all day.’”

Swenson wasn’t the only one who felt frustrated with the dynamic in the lead group of men at Unbound.

Lachlan Morton, another Unbound favorite (albeit not nearly as marked as Swenson), reacted by attacking multiple times. Eventually, one of his moves stuck, and he followed Chad Haga into a two-man time trial that ultimately saw the Aussie win the race.

Payson McElveen said it was almost surreal to watch Morton’s move stick without anyone going after him.

“Lachlan knew,” he said. “He tries that move every race. This time the group was so big and there was so much infighting between Grand Prix riders marking each other, and everyone marking Keegan. There was never any momentum in the group. It was just a classic negative road race.”

‘With no one willing to work, it was like, ‘I guess he’s gonna win,’ Swenson said.

Hopefully doesn’t happen in Steamboat Springs

Unlike Unbound, which has often played out as a race of attrition, SBT GRVL has historically tended to unfold like a road race. If there aren’t any extreme weather events to counter the fast racing, dynamics similar to those at Unbound will likely ensue.

Swenson says he’s more prepared this time.

“Sure, Unbound made me reevaluate going into some these races that might end up racing like that,” he said, “and Steamboat has always been kinda like that.”

At the Leadville 100 MTB race last week, Swenson showed that he continues to be the one to beat in a long, high-altitude sufferfest. With its myriad challenges — altitude, long steep climbs, and technical descents — negative racing isn’t really an option at Leadville. Swenson likes that kind of racing, and that kind of racing likes him.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean he’s not willing to show up when the course or style of racing doesn’t necessarily favor him — or, when other riders put a target on his back.

Swenson, despite some of his herculean results, is still human, and he wasn’t that stoked on returning racing post-Unbound.

“In the moment, yeah, I didn’t really want to race,” he said. “But I think now after I accepted it as a new challenge, it’s another nut to crack to try and win.”

For those reasons, Unbound 2025 is already on Swenson’s horizon. “I still want to try and win,” he said.

Ahead of SBT GRVL this weekend, Swenson also has a refreshingly optimistic take on the ever-changing gravel race scene as a whole. He has rebounded from Unbound, so to speak.

“I think it’s cool, gravel is changing and getting better,” he said. “It’s a cool new challenge. At first I was bummed because I couldn’t figure it out in the moment. I didn’t know what to do, Matt didn’t, anyone who was an extremely marked rider did’t. It was a very frustrating experience in the moment.

“But I think we can change that. I can’t tell you how just now, but it can be done. It’s definitely not impossible.”