questions with keegan

Houf­fal­ize, a clas­sic among World Cup venues that attracts thou­sands of spec­ta­tors from all over Europe. Just rac­ing at Houf­fal­ize, would be a mon­u­men­tal moment for most cyclists… and then to find a spot on the podium is pretty freak­ing awe­some. Last week­end, Utah’s own Kee­gan Swen­son of Can­non­dal fac­tory Rac­ing, did just that. KDAY Rac­ing decided to throw a few ques­tions at Swen­son, in hopes of get­ting a bet­ter idea of how it all played out.

Have you ever raced at Houf­fal­ize before?
No

How would you rank the race, the atmos­phere and the com­pe­ti­tion, to the other venues you’ve been to around the world?
I would say it was right up there with Offen­burg. The crowds were insane! And of course the course was awe­some. Def­i­nitely hop­ing they bring it back again next season.

How many train­ing laps did you take to get the course dialed in and how con­fi­dent were you about the race when it came time to line up?
Id say it took me about 5 laps to get the course dialed in well.

I felt pretty con­fi­dent when it came time to line up, I just felt like I had the course dialed and that it suited me fairly well. I also had a really good call up, which is always nice at races with a lot of racers.

Reports say that you lead the major­ity of the race. Would you say that you were in con­trol and set­ting the pace for the lead group or were there a lot of attacks by oth­ers gun­ning for the lead?
Yes and no, I was lead­ing and felt like I had some con­trol for bit. But at the same time you never really feel like you have con­trol over these world cups, just so much going on.

On the final lap you lost some air in your tire. Do you feel that hav­ing the slight mechan­i­cal issue, cost you the win?
Yeah I burped my front tire some­where going into the last lap, which was a bum­mer because I had to descend super slow to keep it from rolling off the rim. It might have cost me the win, but it’s hard to say because you never know what is going to happen.

What were the crowds like out on course?
The crowds were insane. Even for the juniors! There were peo­ple every­where! We need rac­ing in the US to be more like that. Easy spec­ta­tor access and gnarly stuff that is fun to watch guys rip down.

Is it more or less moti­vat­ing for you, to race under a lot of pres­sure or with hun­dreds or thou­sands of peo­ple cheer­ing for you and oth­ers around you?
Id say it is def­i­nitely motivating!

Was there any­one actu­ally cheer­ing on the kid from the US?
Oh yeah, it seemed like every­one was cheer­ing for every­one. Although I wasn’t sure what they were say­ing, it sounded good and encouraging.

We’ve all had big races that go well and some that don’t. If you could do this one over again, would you do any­thing dif­fer­ent?
Uhm yes, I would put a lit­tle more air in my tires. It’s just hard to find the right bal­ance of grip and stiff­ness some times…

I can imag­ine that team USA was pretty excited as well as your spon­sor. How does Kee­gan Swen­son, cel­e­brate after such a great result?
Every­one was pretty stoked USA and Can­non­dale. Espe­cially after Marco Fontana’s 3^rd place and Manuel Fumic’s 5^th place, great day for CFR! We went out for din­ner with the rest of the USA team there and I’d say that was about it, we had a 4am wake up the next morning.

At only 18 yeas old, where do you see or hope to see your­self in five years from now?
Well, I hope to see myself with a pro­fes­sional team rac­ing on the world cup cir­cuit and big races all over the world.

What is the most grat­i­fy­ing aspect of cycling for you? Why, do you ride?
Prob­a­bly a win or podium at a huge race, after all my hard train­ing. Just sat­is­fac­tion that it pays off I guess.

And finally, any shout-outs, people/sponsors to thank?
Yes of course, first off my friends and fam­ily for sup­port­ing me at all my races and events. Can­non­dale for the equip­ment sup­port, mechanic sup­port and over­all just a great team as well as com­pany. My coach Tom Noaker for his sup­port and keep­ing me on track with every­thing and get­ting me faster! I’d also like to thank Chris and Nate at Endurance cycle ser­vice for keep­ing my bike run­ning. Lastly, I want to thank Tim at Moun­tain Velo for putting me in the right posi­tion on all of my bikes! Thanks every­one for support!