Texting while riding: Marginal gain or no big deal?

This article originally appeared on Velo News

At hour who-knows-when of hurry up and wait, Myron Billy gets a text message and reads it aloud.

“Monster and a water. No pack.”

The text is from Keegan Swenson, favored to win Unbound Gravel that day. He’s somewhere outside of Madison, Kansas, where Billy, his mechanic, is waiting at checkpoint two, 167 miles into the 200-mile race. The humidity is stifling, and we’ve been looking at the radar on our phones and then looking up at the sky, trying to ID where the potential storm cells are lurking.

I ask Billy how Swenson texted him.

“He texted me,” he says, deadpan.

“Yeah, but like, did he use Siri? Or do it through his headphones or something?”

Billy is trying to be kind.

“He texted with his hands, using his phone. We practice.”

Billy gets the one bottle with plain water and a gel rubber-banded to it and stands in the street, waiting for Swenson to arrive to do the handoff. Sam Randazzo from Santa Cruz takes the other bottle filled with Monster and walks down toward the end of the feedzone.

After what seems like another hour of hurry-up-and-wait, Swenson buzzes through, swapping bottles and dropping his hydration pack. Then, he’s gone.

‘We nerded out and got the lightest iPhones we could’

There is nothing illegal about using a cell phone during Unbound; in fact, riders are required to carry one. But Keegan Swenson and Russell Finsterwald were the only ones caught in the act using them as they led the elite race.

Like Swenson, Finsterwald used his phone to text his support crew so they’d be ready when he came through. It was less, ‘hey I’m on the way,’ and more, ‘hey, this is what I want when I get there.’

“I wasn't originally planning to power wash my bike, but I was able to put in a request to have one at aid 1 and our team made that happen,” Finsterwald said. “I also had two different feedzone strategies for aid 2 and was able to communicate which option I was planning on.”

Swenson said that he did not have two strategies for aid 2, which is why he texted Billy before he arrived.

“I changed my whole pit plan around,” he said. “I decided I didn’t want to grab a pack because it was so hot wearing one. I decided I wanted one bottle with Monster and one with plain water. And I asked him to spread it out so I didn’t have to grab two bottles at once.”

Swenson couldn’t say how much time he thought texting ahead saved him. If he hadn’t, “I just would have taken what I had planned on and been happy with it,” he said. “I wouldn’t have changed the plan there because then it would have taken too long.”

While neither rider went so far to say they practiced texting while riding -- “I just do it a lot,” Swenson said -- both admitted to more than a little forethought about texting during the race.

“We nerded out a bit and got the lightest iPhones we could,” Finsterwald said.

The two, who are close friends and nearly always train together -- both bought iPhone SEs (138.4mm by 67.3mm, 5.09oz) which are smaller, lighter, and less clunky than their personal iPhone 14 pros (147.5mm x 71.5mm, 7.27oz). The cute matching red cases, however, were coincidence.

“I got red so that if I dropped it, it would be easier to find,” Swenson said.

Swenson also got a sim card for the phone and only gave a few people the number so that text messages from randoms wouldn’t blow up his Garmin during the race. He got updates on time splits from his parents -- Finsty was getting them from his team and girlfriend back home -- but that was about it.

The two were part of a strong group of seven that rode together for over three-quarters of the race, so it’s hard to say whether or not the communication made any difference. Pete Stetina opted for a full bike spa treatment at aid 1 and had to chase hard to get back, but he did.

Ian Boswell, like Swenson, didn’t get off his bike at either checkpoint, just got bottles and a fresh hydration pack at the first one and more liquid and some food at the second. It took five seconds, his mechanic said. And he hadn’t texted ahead.

Regardless of whether the nerdery paid off, the texting did not mess up the group or pace or bother anyone.

“They’re just damn good at texting and riding,” Boswell said.

For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today.