Sorry, with your edit you forgot to replace the word “big” with “any”. Or just leave it out.
After reading all the Americans fight it out on this thread for the past two weeks, figured I could at least post a picture of the source of controversy. I think this is him, right? This was just in front of finish line as they crossed for first formal city lap. Looks comfortable. At this point everyone was taking it fairly easy.
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I think also it’s ok to reflect on the forum’s enthusiasm of the US Gravel scene, the fanbase of the TR podcast and its common voices, and simply be ok with this particular moment not living up to that hype and enthusiasm.
Some key truths:
Keegan is a wicked and talented bike racer. No question.
The gravel scene is amazing to watch develop and continue to attract more and more people from road and MTB together at great events.
The ex-pros in gravel, the privateers, the mixing of these individuals into events with amateurs, is also great, inspiring, and keeps cycling as a unique sport where fans and heroes can be shoulder to shoulder.
The gravel scene however is simply not the pinnacle of cycling’s very best super humans. It just isn’t. It is what it is. If someone, anyone, wants to put their talented big engine on the world stage with the world’s best, the US gravel scene is not going to be the place. And that’s totally ok.
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I think Keegan did pretty well placing 75th, only the second race he lost this year. Have to give the guy some credit for being out of his comfort zone in a country on the other side of the world.
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If we are being totally honest, the fact that he finished at all and didn’t withdraw is really mind-bending. He’s a freaking fitness monster.
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169 people started the race and he finished 73rd….
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A really impressive result in my opinion. He has never raced road at an elite level and he clearly wasn’t over his head racing against the best in the world. It’s hard to believe honestly.
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Just like 90% of the rest of the field, not from Australia/NZ. Definitely out of his comfort zone for racing at a level over his current experience.
Mmm, i don’t think that it’s hard to believe, nor is it truly impressive at all actually. He finished, as expected (it’s a long race and the distance was in his wheelhouse). He did, literally, nothing in the race except follow from the back of the peloton or from within the group that was dropped and he ended up in. As expected.
The notion of making an impression for a potential discussion with a team at the WT level is out the window, from what i can discern. As expected.
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Looking forward to hearing about Keegan’s experience. Hopefully @Jonathan will get him back on TR Podacast to discuss.
It was also pretty cool seeing Scott McGill up in the break for quite a while. Similar to Keegan he was called up late to participate. He’ll likely give his full breakdown on the BonkBros podcast in the next week or two.
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I don’t think everyone expected him to finish. It’s not like this was a flat race where he rolled in for an “easy” pack finish. I personally think it’s crazy impressive for someone with zero experience racing at this level to finish where he did on that course. To be fair, I have not watched the race, so maybe he was just hanging with a group off the back that was taking it easy, but it looked like they weren’t that far back and he had some serious names with him. Maybe I’m easily impressed. If someone is riding the bench in the nba or nfl, I’m impressed that they can compete at that level even if they aren’t the stars. The vast majority of riders at the wt level never sniff a podium, will never ride in a grand tour, and rarely affect the outcome of a race. I’m still impressed if they get to that level and can make a living racing bikes
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Keegan finished ahead of Wout Poels, Marc Soler, Tobias Foss, Florian Senechal, Ben Turner and Connor Seift to name a few. I didn’t watch the whole race so don’t know how much those others guys were working. But still, that’s impressive. Being in the top 50% even if you never take a pull is something for a guy whose never done a WT race.
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Totally agree, this will be a good discussion that im sure many will be interested in hearing.
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Watched the entire race start to finish. I think he did very well for two main reasons. 1) He’s not a road racer! He has never competed at this level or frequently in this discipline. If you were to drop Tadej at Leadville I have little doubt Keegan would give him all he could handle and have a very real shot of beating him. Does that mean that Keegan is as strong a rider as Tadej? Of course it doesn’t, but he would have the upper hand given it’s a discipline he’s used to and comfortable with. He would know where to push and where to recover and would have a lower cognitive load and would be more efficient. Keegan had all these things working against him at the WC. 2) The efforts in this race are not what Keegan has been training for if you follow him on Strava you know he’s been training the diesel and his training hasn’t been geared for the explosive repetition of many road races especially this one. If he were to tailor his training to the demands of RR no one really knows what he’s capable of. Maybe nothing more maybe there’s a % of gain there (I bet there is improvement to be found). I think he proved he can hang with WT riders. Not the best WT riders, but WT riders all the same.
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LOl, does Jon need an excuse to spend 50 minutes of the podcast talking about Keegan? 
Pretty sure the hosts had joked that it could be a drinking game - take a shot everytime Jon mentions Keegan.
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Interesting perspective. 2 thoughts, he finished, and he didn’t get arrested. To my eyes, looks like he might sell more bikes and merchandise than at least one other racer out there. Behavior on and off the bike is important to me. Hopefully Keegan can keep it clean out there, and be a good human.
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I’m looking forward to hearing about the race. I can’t see clearly enough on Strava to work out how many Watts were required to spring over that My Pleasant climb each lap.
I think Keegan did as well as expected. It was a tough course with just enough selectiveness. It would have been interesting if Scott hadn’t made the break if Keegan would have been given the task.
I also watched the whole thing and didn’t see him at the front. He also was never, I wouldn’t think, going to be expected to be at the front. Presumably he was there in case Neilsen or Magnus needed help getting back to the group or similar.
Keegan would have hopefully had a great opportunity to interact with some WT coaches/managers etc and that would be just as valuable in any camera time.
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There is a whole other side to this. Did Keegan enjoy the experience. If not, it’s all pretty much null and void.
He has other options. If it’s not for him, he can say that he rode in the WC. Hopefully we’ll get to hear from him on the podcast.
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I’m not a great fan of Keegan personally, but I have read several remarks stating he didn’t ‘do’ anything in the race, and I feel compelled to say I was keeping an eye out for number 103 and I did see him once doing a hard pull at the front of the third or fourth group in the last hour of the race. And if the cameras picked it up once, he was likely doing it more than that, as that group was not on screen much at that point in the race.
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He totally met and exceeded my expectation. What an incredible experience it must have been. Congratulations Keegan!
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To say he didn’t “do” anything shows a pretty superficial understanding of how these races work. If you go by what is on camera, it looks like there were only about 6 guys doing anything at all. Guys spend their whole careers off camera working for the team. A lack of camera time doesn’t mean a rider didn’t “do” anything.
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