![\"Keegan](\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025_UNBOUND_Race-Day_Dan-Hughes-107-scaled-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOne of the discipline’s leading ‘privateers’ retires from racing and Santa Cruz pulls plug on iconic squad, marking a turning point as US gravel racing grows ever more professional and competitive.<\/p>\n
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Swenson, shown here at 2025 Unbound, was a key member of the team. (Photo: Special to Velo)<\/p>\n
Updated December 16, 2025 05:20AM<\/p>\n
Two big announcements this week confirm that the U.S. gravel racing<\/a> scene is changing fast.<\/p>\n Pete Stetina<\/a> \u2014 one of the discipline\u2019s leading \u201cprivateers\u201d \u2014 is stepping away from full-time racing, and Santa Cruz Bicycles is shuttering the dominant \u201chtSQD\u201d at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n These shakeups reveal how far gravel has traveled from a loose, grassroots experiment a decade ago to a polished, high-performance discipline<\/a> that\u2019s testing the limits of the elusive \u201cgravel spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Stetina, 38, was among the first to jump from elite European road racing into the nascent U.S. gravel racing circuit. In 2019, he walked away from the WorldTour to commit fully to gravel<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI based my career on gravel,\u201d he told Cycling Weekly<\/a> this week. \u201cI was going to sink or swim with this ship.\u201d<\/p>\n Stetina helped raise the booming discipline\u2019s profile, and he clocked wins at such races as the Traka 360 and the Crusher in the Tushar, and consistently chased the podium at Unbound, Leadville, and the Belgian Waffle Ride.<\/p>\n Stetina carved out space as a \u201cprivateer,\u201d signing on with sponsors like Canyon and other key backers. With his trademark van and high-profile social media presence, he helped blaze a trail that many have since followed.<\/p>\n Gravel racing evolved fast Gravel boomed, and Stetina rode the wave, but things were changing quickly.<\/p>\n Bike companies, sponsors, and organizers all upped the investment as thousands of cyclists turned on to the big fun found in bashing the dusty backroads of Americana and beyond.<\/p>\n Much like the mountain bike boom 30 years ago, everyone was buying gravel bikes, and events soon expanded across the globe.<\/p>\n Cycling\u2019s governing body took notice, and by 2022, there was a UCI-sanctioned gravel world championships. Not all of the purists liked these evolutions.<\/p>\n \u201cRace at the front, party at the back,\u201d was the phrase that captured the ethos, and Stetina was often at the crossroads of growing professionalism that sometimes intersected with the free-wheeling spirit of the gravel scene.<\/p>\n \u201cI came to gravel to have a more fulfilling and fun experience,\u201d Stetina told Cycling Weekly. \u201cAnd I almost feel like I\u2019m back in the WorldTour that I left. It\u2019s so high-performance now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018htSQD\u2019 shutters after historic run In another turn of the page, Santa Cruz confirmed this week it is shuttering the htSQD<\/a>, one of gravel\u2019s standard-bearers over the past half-decade.<\/p>\n Formed in 2021, the team \u2014 built on connecting to the growing community \u2014 was proof that brands were investing big money into the booming gravel market.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we formed the htSQD back in 2021, we set out to build an elite team of individuals. Racers who were champions on and off the bike,\u201d Santa Cruz said Monday. \u201cWe weren\u2019t really sure what we were in for when this started, but the results came in fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Its lineup included Keegan Swenson<\/a>, who\u2019s since become the most successful male gravel\/endurance rider in the U.S., winning three Lifetime Grand Prix titles, twice breaking the Leadville 100 record, and winning Unbound and the 2025 UCI world title in XC marathon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alexis Skarda won national championships and kept the beats going after the race, while Tobin Ortenblad and Ruth Holcomb rounded out the squad. Santa Cruz confirmed it\u2019s folding the team.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery race has to have a finish line, this is it for the htSQD,\u201d Santa Cruz wrote in a social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The wheel keeps spinning. Sweenson\u2019s been linked to a move to Specialized<\/a>, and others on the team are committed to keep racing.<\/p>\n Stetina will also race in select events in 2026 as he winds down his competitive career, but vows to stay involved in the gravel space.<\/p>\n Change and evolution are inevitable in gravel, especially as more prize money, higher stakes, and more professionalism move into the space.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Stetina.jpg\"\/)
Stetina walked away from the WorldTour to chase the gravel circuit.\u00a0 (Photo: Brad Kaminski\/Velo)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Alexis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_7072-scaled-e1697812361847-720x540.jpg\"\/)
Skarda was one of the key members of the team that transformed gravel. (Photo: Betsy Welch\/Velo)<\/p>\n