Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) recovered from his final sprint effort at the Tour of the Alps in the shadow of the Duomo in the central square of Trento, initially angry and disappointed that he had come up short in the hectic finale.
Bookwalter made sure he was on Thibaut Pinot’s wheel in the twisting final kilometre in the city centre, but the cobbled road surface and left and right turns made it difficult for him to come past the Frenchman, who was determined to win his first ever sprint as a professional after missing out on Thursday’s fourth stage.
Bookwalter finished second at the line behind an overjoyed Pinot (FDJ), with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) carefully following Pinot to ensure he took overall victory.
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"We knew that we had to be at the front for that last corner. I tried but I messed it up with visual judgment at the car deviation. I thought we kept going straight for another block, so Pinot got a good jump and then there was no time to come around him," Bookwalter explained, his anger fading to regret as the adrenaline of the sprint eased.
The final stage of the five-day Tour of the Alps was arguably the queen stage with the long climb of Monte Bondone, a twisting descent and then a final steep climb overlooking Trento. BMC team leader Rohan Dennis decided to switch roles and ride for Bookwalter, helping the American on the 19.4km climb to the summit of Monte Bondone.
Joey Rosskopf helped set up Bookwalter's result when he infiltrated the early nine-man breakaway that built a lead of more than five minutes. Rosskopf and the others survived to the Monte Bondone climb with about 50km remaining, where the chase from a vastly reduced peloton finally reeled them in. Bookwalter and Dennis took over from there.
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