THE RIDERS | KEEGAN SWENSON
starting his own racing team, and the structure and roster he was describing were a carbon copy of the Off-Road team, so she suggested he join the Specialized programme.
“ In terms of structure, with Specialized, everything’ s just so dialled,” he says.“ All the equipment is top-notch, the support team we have is amazing. We’ ve got Brad Copeland as head mechanic, we have multiple swannies [ soigneurs ], and then we have Mike Posthumus on our side now, which has been awesome, just helping to keep everything dialled on the training side, and with nutrition and all that. So yeah, we’ ve got quite the team.
“ And then you have things like the wind tunnel, Retül, all that stuff. Being able to already get in the wind tunnel and test things and dial in positions and equipment and clothing, etc, has been really cool. We’ re able to have all the bikes checked with Retül and get
Keegan takes the 2025 XCM World Championships win at Valais, Switzerland
Rocking the rainbow jersey at the Life Time Grand Prix Series; and in new Specialized Off-Road Racing kit for 2026.
“ MATT’ S ONE OF THE GUYS OUT THERE THAT I FEARED MOST AS A COMPETITOR, SO I THINK BEING TEAMMATES WITH HIM NOW IS PRETTY COOL”
everything sorted. So yeah, I’ m really excited. And then, having Matt as a teammate and my wife, Sofía, is super cool, as well as Mads Würtz Schmidt, Geerike Schreurs and Annika Langvad over in Europe. I think we’ ve got a really good squad.
A FIRM PARTNERSHIP Matt and Keegan will be the only Specialized Off-Road team at this year’ s Absa Cape Epic. As they shared on the Specialized podcast, Sofía struggled to find a partner to match her ability for this year’ s race. But that has suited Matt and Keegan’ s desire for a slightly more streamlined and low-key setup for their race.
Keegan knows Matt well. He and Sofía give the big South African powerhouse a base when he’ s travelling and racing in the US, so they’ re friends and housemates, but they’ re also fierce competitors, chasing wins at the same races over the season.
“ Matt’ s one of the guys out there who I feared most as a competitor, so I think being teammates with him now is pretty cool,” says Keegan.“ We see things in a kind of similar way, but you know, everyone’ s got their own takes. Matt’ s got different strategies than me and different ways he looks at races and I have my
ways, and I think together we can be a really good team. We’ re both willing to sacrifice for each other; I’ m willing to ride for him, and he’ s willing to ride for me. So it’ s kind of unique in the sense of being friends and good teammates. I think there are certain courses that’ ll suit him better, that’ s the big diesel engine, and then there’ s some that’ ll suit me better, so we’ ll see how it all goes. But yeah, I’ m looking forward to being able to race with Matt all year.”
So how are the two approaching the 2026 Absa Cape Epic route from a strategic perspective?“ With Epic stages, I kind of leave a lot of it up to Matt,” says Keegan.“ He’ s the expert, it’ s his turf, and he knows all these trails and most of these courses like the back of his hand, so I just kind of go off what he says.
“ Looking at this year’ s route, it looks good. I’ m excited for some of the bigger days out there. I think those will suit us both really well. We have similar riding styles in the sense that the longer and harder the race is, the better it is for us against some of the more punchy XCO engines that’ ll be there. I think the longer days with more climbing, and perhaps a bit of heat, or whatever else, always make the race hard but I’ m excited for it and it’ ll be good to get cracking.”
PHOTOGRAPHS MICHAL CERVENY / SWPIX, BRETT ROTHMEYER / SPECIALIZED, LIFETIME GRAND PRIX SERIES
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