There’s a spring in Brent Bookwalter’s step as he walks into the media room at the BMC Racing press camp in Denia, Spain.
Perhaps it’s down to the relatively light training load he and his team have enjoyed, with an hour-long spin along the coast and a coffee stop along the way. Or maybe, and perhaps more accurately, it’s down to the freshly-focused mentality the 31-year-old exudes as he describes what has been a breakthrough season for him.
On the face of it, one win this calendar year is nothing exceptional but if the stage win in the USA Pro Challenge was the top of the Bookwalter’s pyramid then it was built on solid foundations. A strong Giro d’Italia was followed by a surprising but deserved fourth at the Tour of Austria - a race that’s often overlooked as it clashes with the Tour de France but boasts a respectably hard parcours. A string of impressive results including third overall in Utah preceded his stage win and second place overall in Colorado. For a rider who had begun to blend into the furniture at BMC Racing as a dependable domestique, this was a year of self-reward for Bookwalter, and not just self-sacrifice.
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“I quickly fell into the worker role in my career in around 2010, 2011,” he told the gathered media.
“That was great, I got to ride and help Cadel Evans win the Tour de France and got to help Tejay van Garderen win in California and USA Pro Challenge. That was amazing and fulfilling but realising I was getting older, more mature, and having a bit more experience, I started to transition myself out of it and I realised that I could be just as good of a teammate but also look for my own success.”
See also
- Brent Bookwalter's Cyclingnews profile page
- The Cyclingnews Podcast: Exclusive interview with Taylor Phinney
- Porte: BMC have given me the opportunity to challenge at the Tour de France
- Top riders won’t use disc brakes in the Classics, says Van Avermaet
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