He strong, sure, but road racing is not all about fitness, there is skill and strategy involved. Its sad that the US doesnt have a big pool of road racers to choose from.
Think what the peloton would look like today if no one gave a CX racer a chance.
Want to stick to MTB? How about Sagan, Landis, Cadel, and Fuglsang?
16 Likes
Yep…I glad the roadies gave old CX racer Wout a shot of road racing. Now I get to enjoy his exploits all year long.
7 Likes
Thats true about CX racers, BUT they didnt start off in the Worlds. Some would say riders like MVdP or Wout didnt need tactics at first since their engine was so gigantic. The just had the power to do stuff that normally wouldnt work. Im not sure Keegan is quite at their level. We’ll see i guess.
But my point was the US doesnt have a huge pool of road talent to choose from.
You’ve got this wrong … the US has the best pool of talent it’s had for a race like this in YEARS. However, due to trade team obligations, fatigue, visa issues, and Australia being incredibly far away … several riders have opted out and declined to participate. There are several other countries dealing with the same issue … specifically Spain because of the current relegation plight of Movistar.
If USA cycling could construct its best team (6) it would probably send Sepp Kuss, Quinn Simmons, Brandon McNulty, Neilson Powless, Magnus Sheffield and Lawson Craddock — that would have been the absolute best team the USA has sent to this race in a long, long time.
It’s just that several of those riders can’t/won’t participate for various reasons. USA cycling is in better shape than it’s been in a very long while.
EDIT: Scratch Lawson Craddock from that list above and add Matteo Jorgensen, which furthers my point.
24 Likes
It still validates the OP’s point. You just named like…almost everyone. The pool’s depth is not something to write home about. This is simply the truth. Sad…but true right.
You should see our Canadian pool of riders… 
The pool of riders, from North America, that could do anything substantial at Worlds is a shallow puddle of rain water compared to other prominent cycling countries. And frankly, hence Keegan’s invite. I wish him luck, but he’s being thrown to the wolves on this one.
4 Likes
I could not disagree more. This is the best pool in a decade. Is it as good as some European countries? Of course not, it never has been, for many reasons… but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the US finally growing our talent pool.
3 Likes
Saying this is the best pool in decades, and saying it lacks depth aren’t contradictory. This very well may be the best pool, but what does it look like after the 6 people named? If the pool is only 6 very talented riders, then the pool does lack depth.
4 Likes
Fair enough. I do agree with that. I may be overly focused on him saying “it’s sad” the pool is so weak that Keegan got sent, which I see as an insult when we should be celebrating.
If I had 4 kids and none of them graduated high school and then the 5th got a college degree, I wouldn’t say, “it’s sad that my family is so weak that only the 5th child got a degree”, I would say, “it’s awesome that my child got a college degree”.
11 Likes
Also add in that this is one of the biggest teams they’ve sent in a while which says something about the quality
As an impartial observer (living in the US but from New Zealand) I think US cycling is really strong at the moment. So many strong riders in tuenTour mixing it up in the hard stages. It’s true that the US isn’t as strong as many of the European countries but honestly that sport isn’t that big here.
I’m just enjoying what is happening at the moment in the sport.
5 Likes
Well it will be interesting to watch, it will b e great if he does something special. I hope he does.
3 Likes
Race tactics for Keegan…try to get in the breakaway. If that fails, just stay glued to Pogacar’s wheel and see how far you can last.
1 Like
WVA and MVDp and the others were not just CX riders that joined the WT. They were well accomplished roadies on the Conti level before they got WT contracts. They raced CX as well.
They didn’t just one day switch from CX right into the highest level of road cycling competition.
For example MVDP won the junior world road race championship in 2013. WVA was a roadie profession since 2013 too.
4 Likes
Subtract s, replace with r.
1 Like
Its rad that the US doesnt have a lot of strong road pros?
1 Like
We have a lot of strong road pros. But not any that have anything left in their legs after a long road season and who want to travel to Australia. Australia wouldn’t be my choice of a place to visit with their tight covid restrictions/lockdowns.
1 Like
Welp, Look like you need more than just fitness to complete with real deal roadies. Like this post started off, he’s super strong, but tactics and road skill are needed to make a successful road racer.
Your conclusion from one race? Take a look at the finish list. Plenty of incredibly successful road racers around and below Keegan in the order. Looks like a damn good debut to me. Not to mention that he likely had a job to do within the team, as did many of the riders who finished down in the list. Ridiculous to make a value judgment on a rider based on one worlds finish.
13 Likes
His own IG feed says he had trouble positioning as the race went on, which is why he didnt make he split.