Brent Bookwalter is a former American professional cyclist who raced for 16 seasons at the top level of the sport.
Career
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, Bookwalter was a member of the Lees–McRae College (Banner Elk, NC) cycling team from 2003–2006. While a member they won 7 national titles as a team and Bookwalter won multiple individual national titles in Mountain Bike, Road and Cyclo-Cross disciplines. He graduated from Lees-McRae in 2006 with a BS in Biology.
He came to the attention of many cycling fans for the first time when he finished second behind Bradley Wiggins in the opening time trial at the 2010 Giro d'Italia.
He has competed at (amongst others) the 2010 Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the 2009 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. He also competed at the 2009 UCI Road World Championships in the Men's Road Race.
In 2013, Bookwalter won the first stage of the Tour of Qatar, which was marked by strong winds, creating breaks in the peloton. Bookwalter and two other riders escaped from the leading group with 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) to cover and successfully defended their lead, and Bookwalter outsprinted the pair. The chasers were on their heels as they crossed the line and were awarded the same time as him. A team time trial victory in stage two allowed Bookwalter to keep the yellow jersey through stage three before ultimately finishing in second overall to Mark Cavendish. Bookwalter would go on to finish runner-up in the U.S. National Time Trial and Road Race that spring as well as runner-up to Rohan Dennis in the inaugural Tour of Alberta.
In 2015, Bookwalter captured his first classification title by winning the points classification at the Tour of Utah. He won the second stage of the 2015 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, a mountaintop finish, to claim the yellow jersey which he would wear for two days before ultimately finishing second overall to teammate Rohan Dennis.