Racking up a series of victories and looking a class above throughout most of the Life Time Grand Prix series, Keegan Swenson has been having a great year.
He’s won on mountain bikes — no surprise given his background in the discipline. And he’s proven just as adept on gravel courses, from a second place at Unbound to his win at SBT GRVL last month, the day after winning the Leadville Trail 100 no less.
We got a closer look at Swenson’s Santa Cruz Stigmata fresh off of his win at SBT GRVL. It’s built up with a mix of SRAM AXS eTap components and Reserve 40 wheels.
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Santa Cruz is a mountain bike brand first and foremost. The Stigmata gravel bike is the closest thing you’ll find to a road bike in the brand’s range. Swenson’s bike is built up with a mix of SRAM AXS eTap components and Reserve 40 wheels.
For the course’s 9,000 feet of climbing, Swenson chose a 48T aero chainring up front with a 10-50T cassette in the back. It’s enough range to get up the climbs and still hammer the flats and tarmac sections.
Road pedals were a common choice at SBT GRVL. Swenson went with a pair of Shimano Dura-Ace pedals.
Running a 10-50T cassette requires a mountain bike derailleur like this XX1 SRAM Eagle AXS. Note the gold “K$” initials on the battery and the oil slick colored chain.
Swenson had pretty straightforward reasoning for choosing this Wolf Tooth Gnarwolf chain guide: “It seemed like the best one.”
There wasn’t any doubt about who won the LeadBoat Challenge after SBT GRVL. Swenson won both the Leadville 100 and SBT back to back. Participants in both races got special number plates like this one.
Swenson chose the Reserve 40|44 wheelset which has a 25.5mm/25mm internal rim width front and rear to support wider tires. The set is built to take a pounding and comes in at sub 1,500 grams.
The titanium bottle cages come from King.
Swenson runs Industry Nine hubs on his wheels.
Though SBT GRVL has about 100 miles of gravel roads on the black course, many top pros were running relatively skinny tires. Swenson ran 33c Maxxis Speed Terrane tires at 48 PSI rear and 46 front.
Swenson runs a saddle bag from San Diego brand ALMSTHRE under his 143mm Prolgo Dimension saddle.
Swenson turns to Zipp for the cockpit: ServiceCourse SL-80 bars paired with a 130mm -6 degree Service Course SL stem.
A Garmin Edge 530 keeps Swenson up to speed on his data.
Swenson has come into gravel racing from a mountain biking background. So far this year he has proven adept at both.
This decal explains itself.