'Everyone's fighting to be top dog' - Can Keegan Swenson strike on new Sea Otter course to set up fourth Life Time Grand Prix title?

It's a whole new ball game, as the US saying goes, for the Life Time Grand Prix series as the six-race series opens Thursday in California. A gravel race launches the series for the first time in four years instead of a single-track-dominant mountain bike contest. 

There's a new course, a new dedicated start for elite riders and a fresh slate to populate the Grand Prix leaderboard, the men's division monopolised by Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz htSQD) for the past three years. A fourth edition begins in Monterey, California for a share of $200,000 in series prize money on offer for the top 10 pro women and pro men plus $30,000 at each of the six events. 

And with a new gravel course at Sea Otter Classic comes a wide-open scenario for someone other than Swenson to dominate the standings from start to finish. Of course, the three-time Grand Prix men's overall winner is still the top favourite, but his Cape Epic partner Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road), second overall last year, would like to bump him down one notch. 

"Keegan and I are pretty good mates. We talk about all things to do with the bike. It's quite cool to have a good friendship with the top guy. There's no real hiding or shadiness. We're just honest," Beers told media, including Cycingnews, at a virtual Life Time press conference prior to Sea Otter.

"At the end of the day, we race each other. And he normally kicks my ass, so it's just fair and square at that point. So have to just be here on my own trying to figure out how to get him. That makes it fun for me."

Beers said it was more than a two-rider race, however, and they would "have to worry about a lot of people at this point".

Former WorldTour riders leading the charge at Grand Prix races include Alexey Vermeulen (formerly LottoNL-Jumbo), Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) and Peter Stetina (formerly Trek-Segafredo), who all finished top 11 in the series last year. A large number of retired Dutch road pros dominate the start lists at Unbound Gravel in particular, and though most are absent in Monterey, Tom Dumoulin (formerly Jumbo-Visma) makes his gravel debut at Sea Otter Classic Gravel, and later expected at Unbound Gravel 100.

Swenson said this year's Grand Prix events would probably see more team tactics, but in a typical gravel race like what should unfold at Sea Otter, the competition boils down to  individuals racing each other and not teams.

"I think everyone's still fighting for that one spot and to be the top dog on the team. I think the team tactics come into play at races outside Life Time more than Life Time Races. Maybe at Unbound, you'll see a little bit more of it, just because it's such an important race," Swenson said at the same press conference.

"Every year gets harder because there are small teams that come and race, then some Europeans come over. In the end, you hope that the races are hard enough that it really doesn't matter, and the best [rider] is still going to win. I think Sea Otter is a good course. It seems like it's going to be hard enough that it's not going to be a huge factor.

"I'm thankful that I have Tobin [Ortenblad] as a teammate. We're one of the only two that can truly race as a team. He'll do anything to help me out there, which is a pretty key thing to have," Swenson said about his Santa Cruz htSQD wingman. The duo have worked together for several seasons and at the Sea Otter opener in particular, Ortenblad brings his experience as a 'local' as he grew up 45 miles north of the Fort Ord trails and rides there often. 

This year fields are bigger and deeper at the Sea Otter Classic opener, which was a mountain bike race the first three times. For the new Sea Otter Classic Gravel race, 44 invited riders are contesting for Grand Prix points, 22 in the men's field and 22 in the women's field. Both divisions will include a stampede of athletes looking to qualify in a new wildcard programme and an under-23 development programme. 

At last check, the elite men's field was at 136 riders and the women's field at 67 riders, the two divisions separated by 20-minute starts for the 90-mile contest on Thursday. That reflects a 62% increase in the size of the men's field from the Fuego XL MTB last year, and a 50% increase in the women's field.

"The course has to be somewhat selective, or the conditions have to be selective, for the race to be harder from the beginning. I expect Sea Otter to be this way," Swenson said, noting that he expected the race to start right away. "Everyone's getting better every year and I think everyone's willing to gamble a little more, push a little bit harder."

Cape Epic preparation for gravel opener

The duo of Beers and Swenson partnered for the first time last month to compete at the eight-day Cape Epic on the Outride-Toyota-Songa team. Beers returned for a ninth appearance at his home race, looking for a fourth GC title and a 12th stage victory. In the end, the duo managed just one stage podium, which was on the final day.  

"It didn't go great. To be honest, struggled with some back issues and other things throughout the week, so it's kind of just turned into more of a mission to get through it," Swenson said about his third appearance at Cape Epic in March. 

"Since then it's been about recovery, getting the body ready to race again for Sea Otter and getting a gravel bike set up, obviously spending so much time on the mountain bike for Cape Epic."

The MTB endurance race rewards two-rider teams as just that, teams, and it exposes any individual weakness, whether they are mechanicals or illnesses. Beers will just try again and said the event gave him good preparation for his first gravel race of the season. 

"Obviously, preparing for [Cape] Epic with Keegan was a nice, big motivation. It always gives you really good racing legs doing eight days of super-high intensity. I haven't spent too much time on the gravel bike, but it crosses over," Beers said.

"I've been there as well [with illness], like you can do everything correctly, and the body just doesn't show up. It really is hard when we've done everything and your body's just shit and it doesn't work. And I definitely didn't want to lose a friendship over it."

The two now compete against each other at Sea Otter Classic gravel. Swenson comes in with a victory at Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona earlier in the season, and he has the experience of winning the last three times at Sea Otter, even though they were mountain bike races. 

Swenson said the strength of the field is determined a lot by the course itself. This new course is three loops of 30 miles each, and Swenson said it could all be decided on the final pass of the two-mile gravel Lookout climb, leaving one paved mile to the finish.

"I think the terrain will race somewhat similar to the mountain bike race in the past. It looks like that final Lookout climb is similar, which has always been the decisive moment of the mountain bike race, so I expect it to be kind of similar in the gravel race. I think that climb [will be] where the race is won or lost."

New terrain was exposed with recent renovations to the Fort Ord National Monument, a former US military base now used for outdoor activities, including the Sea Otter Classic festival. Now a dedicated route for gravel was possible, using reclaimed land across the former base, where unexploded bombs and grenades from artillery training were cleared, as well as low-maintenance roads in the area.

"Fort Ord has been constantly under development, and they're clearing a lot of the mines out there. We've been waiting patiently for them to continue to open sections of For Ord, and it's allowed us to get access to more and more opportunities for riding," Kimo Seymour, president of Life Time Events, told media about the Bureau of Land Management making the area safer.

"We think it'll make it pretty dynamic. Also, we're able to race the elite riders on a separate day, from all the age group riders. They will have the course to themselves that day, and it'll be a little bit easier for us to follow as well, from a media standpoint."

Last year all age groups were on the MTB course with the Grand Prix riders, separated at the start by a handful of minutes. This year age group riders will compete on Friday.