PHOTO: Grand Rapids Press/TJ Hamilton. The local newspaper captured this candid photo of young Brent, age 5, as he rides for the first time without training wheels. Dad, Harry Bookwalter, stands by for support and encouragement.
efforts landed him a scholarship at Lees-McRae in North Carolina, a college with a competitive cycling program and a natural transition for the next stage of his career. “The Lees-McRae program was a good fit and a nice middle ground where I could continue to develop in school to keep my life in balance,” said Bookwalter. “It’s a big part of making me into the rider I am today and the person I am too.” Nine collegiate national champion titles later, Bookwalter was introduced to road racing. He met cyclists with a salary, paid travel and free mechanical support, opportunities not prevalent on the mountain biking scene. He entered a Michigan-based development program cocreated by business owners and passionate cyclists, Mark Bissell, Rob Wynalda and Kevin Cusack, and received coaching and financial support that allowed him to compete in national and international collegiate races in the offseason. In 2005, he was presented with an opportunity to go pro for Advantage Benefits Endeavor, a domestic cycling team. “At the time, that’s not really where my heart was at,” he said. “But my heart was with the bike and I wanted to race to
statewide mountain bike races on the weekends and building a network of talented athletes and mentors along the way. He drew from their experiences, gained motivation and confidence and adapted into a more regimented training program. “With any competitive pursuit, it’s about identifying people who are better than you, listening to them and filtering all their advice, taking the good parts that are going to work for you and passing on the parts that won’t work for you,” Bookwalter said. The more he advanced, the more he became aware of the importance of details like bike customizations and maintenance. “Originally, it was pump the tires up as hard as they would go and let ‘er rip,” he recalled. That was until fellow cyclist, Russ Tiles, took him under his wing, teaching him optimal tire pressure, fork pressure and other technical nuances to maximize performance. “That’s one of the layers of the sport that you don’t see immediately as a beginner,” said Bookwalter. By senior year of high school, he had become a force to reckon with, earning trips to the cyclocross and mountain bike Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Championships. His 28 gtmtba.com SPRING 2012
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