6 HOURS AT 5.0W/KG?! | Keegan Swenson World Champs Power File Analysis | Ask a Cycling Coach 549
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keegan Swenson breaks down his Marathon World Championships victory in this in-depth Cycling Podcast episode. From the decisive hike-a-bike to his 6-hour effort at 5 W/kg, Keegan shares the race strategy, fueling for endurance, and power data cycling insights that led him to the rainbow jersey. We dive into his bike setup—including running a hardtail MTB—and how he balanced speed, comfort, and control across technical terrain.
Whether you’re into MTB Marathon Worlds, Marathon MTB, or just love mountain bike racing, this conversation is packed with takeaways for every rider. Keegan also reflects on years of preparation, the highs and lows of racing in Europe, and what this win means for his future in endurance racing.
If you geek out on W/kg cycling, training details, or want to learn how the world’s best tackle brutal courses, this one’s for you.
#KeeganSwenson #MTBMarathon #MarathonWorlds #MountainBike #CyclingPodcast #BikeSetup #RaceStrategy #EnduranceCycling #PowerData
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to what white be one of the most special episodes |
| 0:03.1 | of the Asked Cycling Coach podcast presented by Train Road. |
| 0:05.4 | Keegan Swenson, world champion, UCI, cross-country marathon, |
| 0:10.6 | world champion. |
| 0:12.0 | It's been your goal since you were a little kiddo, man. |
| 0:14.1 | Like going to your first, when was your first world championships? |
| 0:17.6 | It was actually in 2011 in Champouret, |
| 0:20.4 | which is only a couple of valleys away from |
| 0:23.0 | where this one was. Man, we're going to analyze your file today, and we're going to go through |
| 0:27.6 | everything so that we can actually see what it takes to win a world championship. This is going to be |
| 0:33.2 | a pretty crazy power file that you're going to look at right here. And again, we're with Keegan Swenson, |
| 0:37.8 | the world champion. Keegan, I just want to jump right into this thing. Six hours, one minutes, |
| 0:42.5 | 52 seconds. And for that, you did 314 watts normalized, 259 watts average. That's five watts per |
| 0:50.1 | kilo for six hours, one minute, and 52 seconds. |
| 0:54.5 | Keep in mind that this race has almost an equidistant amount of descending as it does |
| 0:59.6 | climbing. |
| 1:00.6 | So that's not even just staying on the power, but that's, that's all that time is all. |
| 1:04.5 | There's tons of descending time within there, too. |
| 1:06.5 | That's a huge difference between your normalized power and your average. |
| 1:09.2 | I don't know if you thought about that, but 314 normalized and then 259. |
| 1:15.3 | That's a huge difference. |
| 1:17.1 | And that shows that it's like a 1.2 variability index is the factor, is the metric that |
... |
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