Brent Bookwalter has become a staple of the USA national team that competes annually at the World Championships, having raced in six of the last eight editions. For the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, he has earned the privilege again to ride as part of a six-man team that includes his BMC teammate Taylor Phinney, veteran sprinter Tyler Farrar (MTN-Qhubeka) and younger but experienced riders Alex Howes and Ben King (Cannondale-Garmin), and Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin).
In a sit-down interview with Cyclingnews at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, Bookwalter spoke about his nation’s chances of securing a medal in the elite men’s road race on Sunday, his thoughts on the urban circuits through Richmond and his development into a go-to rider for BMC Racing, where he has ridden since 2008 and has just earned a contract extension through to the end of 2016.
Cyclingnews: You’ve had a strong second half of the season, especially with second overall at the USA Pro Challenge and third overall at the Tour of Utah. Was it your plan to be in good form for the World Championships?
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Brent Bookwalter: Yes, a little bit. It stems back to January when BMC was planning my schedule. Initially, going back further to last fall, they said I could return to the Tour of California and US Nationals this year, with an eye on making the Tour de France team, so I had that in mind when I set up my season.
As things changed throughout the season, as they always do, BMC needed guys at the Giro d’Italia, so that changed the first part of my season. I felt like last year I was strong at Worlds after having raced the Giro, so I felt like doing the Giro again was good for Worlds. I think doing the Tour de France and then Worlds, from my experience, it’s hard to find your rhythm again because it is such a big hit in the middle of the season. Last year, doing the Giro in May, coming back down and then building up through the later races in the season and into Worlds was really good for me. I wanted to do the same this year.
CN: Did you always know that you were going to be on the World Championships team for the US?
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