PHOTOGRAPHS BRETT ROTHMEYER / SPECIALIZED, DOMINIC BARNARDT / CAPE EPIC |
ne of the big questions ahead of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic is what performance we can expect from Keegan Swenson of Team Toyota Specialized in the Elite Men’ s field. Partly because it’ s hard to understand why an athlete who is undoubtedly one of the best off-road racers in the world hasn’ t managed to crack a top 10 in any of his three Cape Epic attempts, but mostly because his performance directly impacts the result of South Africa’ s beloved Matt Beers, who will be racing his 10th Absa Cape Epic this year, and keenly hunting for his fourth win. It feels like there is skin in the game for all of us, and Keegan isn’ t ignorant of that fact.
Born in Park City, Utah, in February 1994, Keegan is a mountain biker through and through. The early days of his racing career were spent on the World Cup XC circuit, and he’ s achieved American national titles in XCO and XCC. Now he’ s consistently winning some of the biggest off-road races on the planet, both gravel and MTB. Most notable are five consecutive wins and a course record at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race in Colorado, and the 2025 UCI MTB Marathon World Championships in Valais, Switzerland. He’ s described himself as someone who loves the process – the training, dialling in the equipment and the race strategy. Will those come together to deliver him to a podium in South Africa’ s biggest race?
A HARD WEEK IN THE SADDLE Keegan said on a recent Specialized podcast that he really wants to“ go back [ to Epic ] and redeem myself, and really show Matt what I can do as a team”. He was earnest about it, and we wanted to hear a bit more about what went wrong and how he framed that week in South Africa.
“ Yeah, Epic’ 25 was bad,” he says.“ I went into it with too much training, I was a bit overcooked. I was ambitious, and the fitness was really good in the few weeks before, and you know, I pushed a bit too much with various different things, and the body just shut down and wasn’ t able to run. And I had some back issues, and
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In action with Matt Beers at the 2025 Absa Cape Epic. |
“ RACING WITH MATT AND FOR OUTRIDE, I FELT LIKE THERE WAS MORE AT STAKE, AND IT WAS IMPORTANT TO FINISH. BUT IT WAS A HARD WEEK”
there were just a lot of things wrong.”
Keegan comes across as cool, calm and collected. He’ s incredibly driven to perform at his best, and at the 2025 Absa Cape Epic, he knew that didn’ t just mean he was having a bad race for himself.“ The hardest thing for me was letting Matt down. That race is so big for him. It’ s a huge race for me as well, but if it was just myself, I would have just pulled out and gone home. But, racing with Matt and for OutRide [ a cycling non-profit ], I felt like there was more at stake, and it was important to finish. But it was a hard week. Day in and day out, I was just strapped in, suffering on his wheel and trying to do the best I could. Being the anchor is never fun. It was a good learning experience, though, and I was able to turn the season around and go win Marathon Worlds. So I think, hopefully, we’ re on the right track this year.
“ We’ re going back to doing what I’ ve done in the past to prepare for Epic and other big races; not changing anything crazy and really focusing on the basic
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things that I know work for me. We’ re also making sure the bike fit is very dialled to avoid any back issues. I’ m trying to spend a bit more time on my mountain bike and really prepare well.”
MARRIAGE, AND A MOVE TO SPECIALIZED What has changed for Keegan is that he and his long-time partner, two-time Absa Cape Epic winner Sofía Gómez Villafañe, finally tied the knot in November 2025.“ It’ s super cool,” he shares.“ You know, we’ ve been together a long time, so it doesn’ t feel like things are a whole lot different, but it feels good to finally get it done.” From the sounds of things, the pair( who met through mountain biking in 2012) complement each other well, and have a stable relationship to lean on through the highs and lows of bike racing.
For 2026, Keegan has joined Specialized Off-Road Racing, putting the couple on the same team.“ It’ s really cool,” he says.“ Sofía is super helpful in everything I do, and she helps to keep my life organised and to keep me grounded. It’ s nice that we do the same thing. We wake up in the morning, have breakfast and coffee, then we go our separate ways to do our training, come home and hang out. There’ s no‘ why do you have to ride so long today’, you know, some of the things that I hear other couples struggling with. It’ s really special, it’ s unique, and I love it.” The move to Specialized was actually
Sofía’ s idea. Keegan was considering
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the untamed african mtb race | MTB | 23 |