Keegan Swenson stepped up from second place in 2022 to win the Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft. Swenson overtook the lead group of seven at the finish and stole the win from Petr Vakoc and Lachlan Morton.

Late in the 200-mile race in the Flint Hills of Kansas, weather conditions worsened and Swenson explained his sprint finish tactics to Cycling News at the finish line.

"Everyone seemed to be in pretty good shape. There was an attack in the last few miles. The finish chute was pretty hectic, so I decided to go a little longer."

Swenson is a Santa Cruz athlete who uses the brand's Stigmata gravel bike for drop bar racing. The bike has a Sram drivetrain and brakes, Reserve wheels with Maxxis tires, a Zipp handlebar stem, and a Prologo saddle.

By the finish, the bike was covered in mud and dust, but a few tweaks and additions were made to get it through the 200-mile ordeal unscathed.

Swenson's frame and fork are slightly different from Stigmata's stock frame, foreshadowing either a prototype or custom frame for the rider, or a new American brand Stigmata frame and fork. Not only is the frame different, but the red color the frame is painted appears to be custom and is not offered as an option on the Santa Cruz website.

What has already been discussed is whether Swenson raced on a prototype, a custom Stigmata, or a brand new Santa Cruz gravel bike.

The most noticeable difference from the stock Stigmata is the front end of the bike. The fork legs appear to be wider than the normal forks and the crown appears to be shaped slightly differently.

The head tube and the junction of the top and down tubes also appear to be shaped differently. Swenson is riding a small size frame and the differences are more apparent.

This shot most clearly highlights the different shapes of the fork crown and head tube junction.

Equipment-wise, Swenson had a fairly standard setup, using a Zipp alloy handlebar stem and turning a fairly narrow bar and shifter. Since aero bars were banned in this year's race, there didn't seem to be much extra padding on the handlebars to accommodate the puppy front foot position.

Swenson used a small top-tube-mounted frame bag for spares and food, and ran a 10mm handlebar spacer on top of the stem, slamming the fork stack considerably. Slightly out of the picture, the shift and brake levers are Sram Red AXS.

Several riders taped sticks and tools to their bikes and used mud-removing tools in case the bikes got too clogged with sticky mud. Swenson appeared to race with a piece of wood attached to the bottom of his top tube with matching red tape.

A name sticker on the top tube and a metal bottle cage (presumably to prevent bottles from popping out on rough surfaces) were also installed. Notably, there appears to be a port for in-frame storage under the down tube bottle cage.

Swenson's drivetrain setup is very interesting and appears to have used a mix of 12-speed T-type Sram XX Eagle MTB series and Red One AXS road components.

Swenson's bike was equipped with a Sram Red 1 AXS power meter crankset with aero 1x chainrings. The chainrings on this chainset are available in 2-tooth increments in sizes 36-50T. A small chain keeper was also fitted, but it was difficult to make out the brand in the mud.

The rear is fitted with a Sram XX Eagle MTB series rear derailleur. The rear accommodates sprocket sizes up to 52t and features the new Sram UDH hangerless interface and full mounting method. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the new frame design. The pedals appear to be Shimano SPD.

The silver derailleur arms on the XX rear derailleur indicate that it is the standard version (if one can call this very expensive mechanism "standard"), not the SL version with the carbon fiber cage.

The wheels are Reserve and the tires are Maxxis Rambler models. It appears that Reserve's Fillmore tubeless valves are mounted on the wheels.