As an American it’s fun to think he could light the world tour on fire so I see the temptation people have for that. I’ve wondered the same myself but losing to a pro conti rider (Ivar) was a pretty big glass of cold water on that one for me.
Yes, he came back and won the next year and yes he beats former world tour riders but the key word is former, and none of the key ones (Stetina, Lachlan, Vermeulen) had any kind of results in the WT. To my knowledge, no one in the Lifetime grand prix has ever won a .UWT race. Maybe someone has, but everyone I spot checked had won .1 or .2 races at best which are 2 to 3 tiers below an actual world tour race.
I think Keegan is amazing. I’m a fat sack of crap compared to the majority of age group athletes, let alone the very worst person in the grand prix. I’m not trying to arm chair quarterback and my gut is that he could ride world tour if he wanted, but there just isn’t objective evidence that he would win true world tour (.UWT) level races. Maybe he could and I’m definitely not arguing that there’s zero chance, just that there’s not the overwhelming evidence people seem to feel there is.