When you think of men’s elite gravel racing, a familiar set of names comes to mind: Unbound, The Traka, the Life Time Grand Prix. In terms of riders, it’s hard not to put Keegan Swenson on that list. Since the Life Time GP’s inception in 2022, Swenson has won the overall series three times and claimed victory at Unbound and almost every other race on the Life Time calendar. He also remains undefeated at the Leadville 100, culminating in a run of results that has come to define the modern era of the sport.
Every one of those achievements was earned aboard a Santa Cruz. Since his rise to the top of gravel racing, Swenson has been inseparable from the brand and its HTSQD racing programme. That long-standing partnership made the rumours circulating late in 2025 all the more striking. The reigning Leadville and UCI MTB Marathon World Champion, it seemed, was preparing for a change.
Alex Hunt
Those rumours gained substance in mid-December when Santa Cruz announced it would close the HTSQD programme at the end of 2025. From that moment, it was clear Swenson’s future would not remain with the Californian brand, even if his next destination, widely speculated to be Specialized, had yet to be confirmed.
Just before the New Year, speculation gave way to certainty. Swenson and Specialized both took to social media to announce a three-year partnership, a move that places him alongside his wife, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, and Gravel Burn winner Matt Beers, with Annika Langvad and Mads Würtz Schmidt also in the fold.
To understand how the move came together, and what it reveals about the changing shape of elite gravel racing, Escape Collective spoke with Swenson in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview.
The end of Santa Cruz HTSQD and the next chapter
Nothing is permanent, and with Santa Cruz's decision to pull the plug on its gravel programme after five years, Swenson's offseason move wasn't one he instigated. As he explained, “Santa Cruz wanted to move on from the HTSQD and go a different direction with their marketing. So there wasn’t really a place for me to continue exactly as it was.” While there may have been scenarios in which he could have stayed with the brand in some form, Swenson was clear that he wanted something that better aligned with where he saw his career going.
“We explored some different options – there were other brands and privateer-type setups – but ultimately I didn’t want to do that,” he said. What Swenson was looking for was simple: a structure that allowed him to focus purely on racing. While several options were on the table, one stood out above the rest.
“Specialized offered this program that was pretty turnkey for me to come in and just be a bike racer,” Swenson explained. “And then being teammates with Matt and Mads was also pretty big. I think that’s kind of where gravel’s going now.”
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