Only 1 American in the top 10 at Unbound Gravel after a selfless act for his teammate

If you look at the men's top ten at Unbound Gravel, you will see only one American flag: that of Keegan Swenson. The Specialized rider gave his wheel, in a very literal sense, to the eventual winner Mads Würtz Schmidt along the way. It was a close call whether there would have been an American in the top ten after such a selfless act.

Unbound was won by the Dane Mads Würtz Schmidt, ahead of the South African Matthew Beers and the Dane Tobias Kongstad. The rest of the top ten? The Dutch riders Adne Koster and Piotr Havik, the Belgian Daan Soete, Aussie Brendan Johnston, the German WorldTour rider Emil Herzog, and the New Zealand defending champion Cameron Jones. And then Swenson, who finished fifth.

In his flash interview, Swenson recounted his story. 'Early in the race, with that mud section at the start, something got stuck in my cassette. It took a few minutes to get that out and put my chain back on, so I had to chase for a very long time.'

The fact that he managed to get back to the front after that start is already a miracle. 'I went full throttle and obviously wasted a lot of energy there. You really have to go flat out, because otherwise your race is over anyway. So I actually made it back to the front and then rode away with Mads (who, like Swenson, rides for Specialized, ed.).'

'We managed to build up a gap quite quickly, which was mainly because Mads was so strong,' Swenson admits honestly. 'At one point there were two of us and I was at my limit, so I had to tell him several times to take it easier. I asked him: just take me to the finish. But a little later he got a flat and we tried to fix it, but it didn't work. He had ridden into a rock and the tear went all the way from top to bottom.'

'I made the call then: you take my wheel and go on,' the American continues. 'I was at the limit and, especially with the headwind, didn't know if I would make it. And Mads rode so well that I had complete confidence that he would make it. Even though that chance was very small for me; I had to be honest about that.'

After trying for a long time, Swenson actually managed to fix the wheel. 'At one point I caught up with Emil (Herzog), who rides for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.' Also on a Specialized, then. 'So we rode on together. I thought the race was over, but Emil said: I think it's still for the top ten. So we kept pushing and I finished fifth.'