Shenandoah

I've been racing the Tour of Shenandoah in Virginia for the past week. We're staying in these rad cabins in the middle of nowhere and we just found out yesterday that their "lodge" has wireless internet! Eureka! i've kinda lost touch with the outside world but that is usually the routine with stage racing. its been a great race. Amazing courses and a tough field. good thing the Priority Health Cycling team brought their A game. I can't even begin to start to bring you up to speed on the past few days, so you should check out the race website for full down low.

exciting huh? the team has been Brilliant and i can't say how proud and happy i am to be riding with these guys and involved with such a great team. so today? TT. 15 miles rolling out and back. i usually like these sort of things but you never know what you'll get after 4 really hard days of racing. Ended up going great! I bagged my first win of the season and also gained enough time to move into GC leader! i can't give enough thanks and props to the team this week, all of them have been incredible. it says somhing about a group when you can have 3 different guys within the team wear the leaders jersey throughout the race (eddy and Tom). sheedy has been amazing, turning himself inside out driving breaks and keeping us where we needed to be. Jake is the wheel man. not only does this kid snag the KOM jersey on day 2, but he then selflessly sacrafices the jersey. Tom flats on day 3, I flat on day 4 and like a true champion jake pulls over both days and hands up his wheel for the better of the team. Thanks Snake! little scott stuart has been a pleasant surprise for all of us. in only his 1st race as a cat. 2 he has been tearing it up at the front, covering moves, riding in breaks and playinhg the roles of super domestique. Same goes for Grahamo, what a stud, mile after mile and bottle after bottle this dude has been making it happen for us. so there's a recap of the crew. oh, can't forget to mention director mark and mechanic Ben. i don't know how these guys keep their heads on straight taking care of a buncha hight maitnence hooligans like us, but they're gettin it done with fine style.

so stage 7 tomorrow. a dandy of a crit. one more day to tear it up, ride smart and go to work. should be an exciting one!

for your viwing pleasure....


not sure what the updates will be like in the cominda days. school, exams. the works. my head will be wracked but i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

tschuss for now

OFF weekend

Check out this tub of Nutella. Straight from Italy C/O Clara. I've been making some good progress on it. hopefully i can kill it before the school year ends. I heard the Nutella they sell in Europe doesn't have hydrogenated oli in it, meaning its better for you then the stuff here. true??
I've managed to pound out 7 straight weekends of racing this season. Overall its been swell and I'm satisfied with the progression, form and fun times that have been had. This past weekend was spent, not racing. kinda nice. wed. i packed a bag and headed to the airport to fly up to MI. Woke up bright and early Thursday morning to head to Priority Health Headquarters. It really felt like after and traveling and waking up that early i should be jumping on my bike but nope, instead i spent the day hangin with the team and crew of awesome friends, family and supporters at our "offical team unveiling" breakfast and info briefing, presentation (with a little speech by me), luncheon, ride, party and finally some catchin up with high school buds and downtown rockin with my teamate Tommy. A action packed day! oh, i even got a stack of the newly released Brent Bookwalter Trading Cards. a very hot item i must stay.

so anyway, I really feel we have one of the best if not the best sponsors in the buisiness. For being a first year cycling sponsor, Priority Health has reallly stepped up nicely. I'm impressed. not to brag, but i really am a lucky guy. so many friendly and supportive people behind us. It was great to have a chance to go back home and catch up with the classics and meet a bunch of new people as well.

Riding the lovely country roads of MI with Brian and longtime friend and sponsor Rob Wynalda. i wonder how many total trehsold intervals i've done on that road?
just for sport, a pic of my race bike. first time i got to ride it since cali. very beautiful if you ask me.
the team getting ready to hop on the bike and be "unveiled"! to the MI community.

Flew back to the South on Friday. Made for a whirlwind trip but i wanted to get back to train, do some schoolwork and have some Clara time. Rode the Roan Mtn. loop with SS on Sat. killer views!! didn't feel bad on the climb either. The weather here is unreal, record highs. yesterday was one for the books. 80 or so degress, sunny, 105 miles, 13,000+ ft of climbing. only bad thing... it was easter sunday, meaning no gas stations open, especially those billy bob stops int he middle of nowhere. it was lookin grim for a while, our salty selves were emptying fast but we found salvation in a beautiful pepsi machine. good thing i had some 1$ bills.

the pirate was nice enough to have a few of us over for easter dinner yesterday. almost like being home. off/easy day today. wish me luck on the homework stuff. i gotta get stuff sorted out before heading to VA for tour of shenendoah a week from today. .


in case your bummed out about your monday activities, here is a pic of a pair our troublemaking freshman. arrested last week for painting the road for our home race. today is clean up day. good work boys! i think they should leave this on there...

PICS!

here's a few more pics from this past weekend. if i had better computer skills i could get more up here but for some reason a few just won't transfer. Thanks to Went's mom! hope its ok i stole them from her photo album.

team gathering sunday morning at the the coffee shop.


Danny, bleeding out of his eyes per usual.


more pre race pow wow
teamate scott jackson attackin solo in the first 10 minutes to help set me up for the winning move.
the LMC spread
big man scott stewart using his sturdy 130 lb. frame to get off the front, making people hurt.

productivity, or not

Monday once again, and that means I'm again in denial, not believing that the school week has begun another brutal cycle. Fortunatley we're rockin out to a 3 day week c/o the Easter holidy. I'm flyin back to MI on wed. for the "Priority Health Cycling Team" media event and official team unveiling. should be a fun day of a little hoopla and also a great chance to get to see the fam, a few friends and meet the people at Priority who are giving me this great opportunity to race my bike. Oh, our website is up. Check it!! they even have a link to bring you right back here.

This past weekend LMC hosted its "home" collegiate road race for the season. It was fabulous to get to race right out our front door and have some awesome support from the school and community. A big thank you goes out to everyone who watched, cheered and helped out with the races! We even had our own version of "the devil" at the top of our road race climb. I'll be sure to locate some pics and toss em up here.

We started the weekend off right by placing 1,2 in the team time trial. It was my "race" ttt effort with 2 of the 4 guys on my team and they all rode like champs. We had a few hicups but were moving pretty good out there. once we get a few more kinks worked out its gonna be scary. here's a hot pick of us getting ready to start. thanks to my teamate went for the pic and my bud Stu for letting me rock his TT bike and disc wheel.
we finished saturday off in stellar fashion, rockin the criterium as well. Everyone rode aggressive and strong from the gun, allowing me to slip off the front in a group of 3. I attacked the break and managed to lap the field just before race finish for the win. it was nice to catch them just in time to watch my teamates line it up and also take the field sprint. nice boys!

RR. Sunday. 60 miles. around 8,000 feet of climbing. i'll spare you the play by play, but it worked out great. with me fortunate enough to take the win, while scott J was 3rd, Scott S 5th and the other boys stacking the top 10. props go out to mr. fairbanks from cumberland university who gave us a good run and helped stir things up a bit.

leave me some love

peace.

the schnozeberries taste like schnozeberries

only a few weeks left of school. not sure how i'm gonna get all that work done. UGH!

raced my first collegiate race this past weekend. our conference is sorta lame this year. there are a few really strong guys on the other teams, but we are the only team with 10 riders in the A field. i guess we are the healthnet of the southeast. good times though. i bagged my first race win saturday in the crit. the rest of our guys are lookin really good though, i'm impressed. the toughest thing for our team is going to be deciding the nationals team. only 3 or 4 guys in each event and we probalby have 8 or 9 guys who would be for sure nationals roster material on other teams.

off day today. nice. chem lab today. not nice.

hoping my easton parts for my training bike come this week. the (nonteam) domocles is pretty hot but some easton carbon parts will complete the ensemble.

a bit of old news, but you gotta check out the issue of velonews with floyd on the cover. (tour of cali floyd). its the one that has a little write up on each U.S. pro team. anyway, it has a nice petite pick of brent bookwalter under the "priority health" section. scope it if you haven't yet. i gotta give a big thanks to the best announcer in the cycling buisiness, Dave Towle for his kind words. Thanks Dave! you da man! on a sidenote..... i really hope the san dimas stage race brings in Dave next year, their announcer gave a strong effort but definitley fell a note short of Mr. Towle.

home race for LMC this weekend. proly one of the hardest courses in the U.S. 60 mile A race with about 12,000 feet of climbing. Giddy up!

i know i'm slackin on the pics. i'll be sure to do a photo diary of this weekend. my mom is coming into town so maybe she can help out with the pics thing.

priority health media event/team unveiling in MI in a week or so. im' heading for a day or two right before the easter weekend. sounds fun.

appreciate the randomness.

check out my boy taylor at a solid 1.1 in france. dang, i wish that kid still went to school here. he made the early move in this race below, somthing that i can say is dang hard. good ride taylor!

peace