"I’m really happy with my ride" - Keegan Swenson finishes in fifth as the best non-European at Gravel World Championships

Keegan Swenson duelled with Alejandro Valverde in the final kilometres of the UCI Gravel World Championships, before the 43-year-old Spanish ‘veterano' beat the 29-year-old US national gravel champion in a close sprint finish. Valverde’s sprint ensured four European professional road racers filled the top placing but Swenson showed he can compete with the best of the WorldTour.

"I’m really happy with my ride. Apart from a couple of crashes that I had, it went well. I don’t crash often but when I do I lay myself out pretty good," Swenson told Cyclingnews and the other media on the ground at the Gravel World Championships.

"The start wasn’t quite as hard as I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t too bad to get up to the front but it took a fair bit of work and I had to take a few dicey lines but I made it up there," Swenson explained.

"Sometimes I felt like I would rather ride at the front so I could ride at my pace. Sometimes it’s easier to be at the front and set a false tempo. Then you’re not fighting for wheels and in certain sections that really worked well for me. Then Valverde did a fair bit of work and made a few digs before we got to the climbs in the end. Our group split on the climb before the creeks and that’s where the group went in half."