goo and poo

my head is stuffed with goo and i kinda feel like poo. that sums it up.

it seems that my head has recently been invaded my mass quantities of mucous. it started as a bit of sneezy and itchy eyes and now has progressed to full congestion. not cool. rather frusterating really. i'm starting my first euro race of the season tomorrow. you would think my head would be filled with race thoughts and excitment. well it is sorta, but mostly just filled with snot. legs feel alright. rested for sure. maybe that will make up for it.

I sneaked into my room and took this pic. Its Mr. Mucous, fresh off one of used kleenex and waiting to be reunited with his relatives which i've been blowing outa my nose all day. not sure if you've seen the u23 national team kits for this year? well they look like spiderman. I'll do my best to get a pic or two from the next few days so i have blog worthy images to post. in the meantime, if your looking for eye candy. head to to www.clarabeard.blogspot.com not only does she look beautiful, but she recently did some cool races and saw some rad scenery which will likely be on another level to the belgium pics i could be taking.

Today I met Johan, the guy who will be our director for this weeks race. He seems like a decent guy. not Johan brunyeel, but if your name is Johan and you are belgian, you must know a thing or two about bikes and bike racing.

thats all for now. web access during this race is unlikely at best, but i will give you all the good word when i return.

ciao

i'm back

the house i left just over a year ago in lovely Izegem, Belgium hasn't changed much. Its been a quiet place since i got here yesterday. There are only 6 guys here right now, and Noel and Els are in France running a Tour De France camp for the heads of state at usacycling. The weather here is insane right now. warm, sunny, unlike the norm.

I made it through my travels without any major hickups, although my upper body is wrecked from hauling around the ridiculous amount of crap that i decided to bring. what was i thinking?? I'm pretty sure what sealed the deal on that one was my 20 min. walk from the train station in Izegem to the house. Apparantly there was some dude to pick me up at the aiport, but he definitley wasn't where my flight came in because i scanned that place to the max before i finally accepted defeat and hopped on the train. turns out this dude even had a sign labeled "BOOKWALTERS" ("S" inclueded. thats how you know its good). anyway, luckily the rad train skills that i aquired last summer were still somewhat intact and i made all my train hops without too much mad dashing up and down stairs.

2 mellow pace rides so far. good to just get out, stretch the legs, recover a bit from last weekend and slowly let the body adapt to the new environment. probably the same recipe for the coming days since we start the Tour of Liege on wed. supposed to be a 5 day stage race with hilly road races everyday. I'm sure that will kick our bodies into gear.

until we start racing, and in between all the races I'll be an internet fanatic since there are limited things to do here. shoot me an email or leave me some love in the comments section to keep me in touch with the homelands. i'm up for suggestions as far as post topics too.

until next time.

I feel dirty

First of, a few pics.....

diggin deep in the closing meters
how do i look?
close but not quite.
can you see me?? solo bridging to the break. ouch!!
i wonder if scott new he was gonna see a bear during the race?

traveling and large amounts of it has been the recipe for yesterday, today and will be as well for tomorrow. Yesterday was wack. my dad and i drove to Philly to get my passport sorted out. A big Thank you to Harry Bookwalter for that one!! well, after about 12 hours of driving, 2 hours waiting in line and another 2 hours waiting in a coffee shop I came away with a new passport. i think next time i will skip the "leaving my passport in storage at school part" and just bring it with me so we can skip that saga of trying to get it back which has occured over the past few weeks.

I didn't make it back in time for the crit yesterday, but sven, scott and grahmo all rode well. Graham bridged up to the winning move, then with about 3 laps to go, put all his marbles into another 3 man move which looked likely to stick but unfortunatley was brought back. he still ended up 9th though, and scrappy scott pulled down a solid 15th. Wait till these kids show back up in PA for U23 nats next year with another year of experience under their belt. I think they'll be turning some heads.

so now i'm in New York, at the airport. about another hour or so here and then I'm off. I feel like a dirtball, and i'm sure its only gonna get worse between now and when i arrive in brussels tomorrow morning. Its almost time to turn off my phone to let it hibernate for the next couple months. i don't know about you, but i think verizon should put a tower in Izegem, Belgium.

maybe in my next post i will type in flemish!!!!

a GREAT day

Seven Springs, PA. I have to say I've really takin a liking to this place since its been so kinda to me over the past couple years. Starting with collegiate mtb nats in '04, then again in '05 and now with the U23 road National Championships.

Yesterday was the day I've been looking for and thinking about for a while now, the TT nataional championships. the course was great for me and we even had a nice steady downpour of rain. I gave everything I had over the demanding 30km and came away with my first U23 national championship. It feels great after coming so close in the road race only a few days earlier, and after just missing the top spot on the podium repetadly in road, mtb and cyclocross the past couple years. Its awesome to really put your mind, heart, body and soul into somthing and then have everything come together on the day you are shooting for. Whats even better is all the great people I have to share it with. Thank you to everyone who has believed in me, not just for this goal but always, throughout my cycling career and even beyond cycling. Your comments, thoughts and prayers mean a lot!!!!I'd love to roll out more of an in detail update on the RR, TT and the week in general, but as usual I'm rippin around trying to get stuff done, last minute. I'm not gonna be able to race the crit tonight because as i type this I'm in Philly, waiting for a few passport issues I have to get sorted out. Looks like its all coming together though and I'll still be able to fly out tomorrow morning to head across the pond and join up with the U23 national team. I think my first race over there is less then a week away, but i'll be sure to keep the updates coming while i'm over there.

ciao for now

computers, ugh

well i've once again proved to myself that I'm a retard when it comes to computers and most other forms of technology. I swapped computers with my stepmom since mine is falling apart and i needed a reliable one for the europe jaunt. hers is almost new so its plush to be rollin with one that works, but i had no idea how much work it would be to get this one "brent" friendly. programs, files and all that stuff i need from my old one. I proly put 6 hours into this today and have gotten almost nowhere. boooooo.

Fitchburg ended up alright. It was a bummer to not be able to keep sheedy in the leaders jersey. in no way, shape or form was that because of how he was riding. that kinda frusterates me when people are like, "what happened to sheedy?" the better question would be, "what happened to the team" cuz after all, this is a team effort, especially when you are trying to defend the lead. We did a good job of it in the circuit race, even with little or no radio communication and no director or mechanic. the next day in the road race we went in with a good plan, with a couple options depending on how things unfolded. It went one of the ways we had anticipated and planned for, but just didn't work out in the end. The good news is that Ted and I both moved up on GC, me to 5th and Ted to 6th. We maintained the last day in the crit and came away with a respectable result. Personally, I was happy to score a top 5 at a NRC race. With a little more experience, a little more form and a little more luck I know I can be right there for that top spot. The team came away from the race with some good momentum and excited to head into the rest of the summer. The guys are lookin sharp so look out!

The past 2 days have been spent trying to recover a bit and looking ahead to the rest of my summer which is rapidly approaching. saturday i leave for Seven Springs, PA for U23 road nats. then on July 14th i head over to Europe to join the national team. I also have to have all my stuf in order for my fall semester at school since i likely won't be coming back to MI before school starts. Whew! that is a bit to think about.

I better get my butt in gear. i should have some pics on this computer sometime in the next year or so. keep checkin back though, i could sprout a few computer friendly brain cells.

ciao

Sheedy Wins!

day 1 of Fitchburg today. 6 mile TT, kinda rolling but mostly uphill. my teamate and good friend Brian Sheedy SMOKED it! he was starting to really look lean and mean at tour de beauce and it appears he's got that last extra bit he needed after a few days of rest and then winning the MI state time trial championships this past weekend. Great win for the team and really awesome to see Brian put in a good ride. 8th place for me. felt alright out there, but definitley some solid room for improvment. Today made me realize how much Mark and Ben help us at races. We're all pulling mechanic/director duties this week as well as racing our bikes. Good thing we're all such great teamates :) Circuit race tomorrow. word on the streets is that its a toughy. wish us luck!

the next one

on the road again today. out of MI, through canada, across the wiiiiide state of New York and into Massachussetts. Made good time but it was still a full day. Fitchburg starts thrusday with the TT. no, mechanic or director for us at this one so we are on our own. host housing for the week as well, nice quiet place about 45 min. from the race. Good job to our young guns at the Tour of Ohio. Grammo kicked off the first stage with a nice 5th place. Also a big congrats to Thor for getting the team its first NRC win of the season at the Tour de Nez last week by winning the TT.

The past week or so since Beauce has been filled with a good bit of rest and enjoyable time at home. I hit the local mtb trails a couple days last week for my first dose of much needed singletrack riding in a long time. swell times as always. gotta try to open the legs up a bit tomorrow which may be hard after a week of couch time, but hopefully this weekend will kick me back into gear and ready me for U23 nats and my upcoming europe trip. Looks like the national team guys are putting in some good rides over there so i'm psyched to join em in a few weeks.

no fresh pics, but i have been missing Clara in very large quanities. i'll share this one which i have been looking at rather frequently.

beauce pics

R and R

back to the blogging world for me. this will be a long one so bear with me. After a rough philly week in which i crashed 3 times in just over a week, i wasn't exactly psyched to write and once again explain what happened; however, i feel like my luck and racing has turned around a bit since then and I'm back on the up instead of on the down.

aside from my crash in the final 200 meters, philly was actually a pretty good day. Last year I didn't makethe final selection there, for a number of reasons, just not having "i"t being one of them. This year though was different and it gave me a new appreciation for the race. Its definitley different then any other race we do all year, especially making it to the 6th hour of racing. I know all those big pros like julich, horner and even pate always say the race isn't hard enough to force a really small selection, and that very well may be the case because we still had 30 or so guys at the finish, but for me, racing the full distance of 250km, and still being there to actually "race" at the end was a tough feat. anyway, the team rode solid throughout the day with Glen and I made the final group. It was great to have a guy like Glen by my side to keep me going and give me all those pointers that only a veteran like him could share. unfortunatley, i took a hard spill in the closing meters of the race as everyone was blurry eyed and diving for wheels. It really sucked to be that close to finishing that race strong and with a good result, but the positive is that i was there and now i know what it takes.

post race was also a bit of a sad time because i had to say my goodbyes to Clara. she's off to Italy to spend a good part of the summer with her parents and rip some legs off over there. I'm already missin her like crazy but at least now I am home and able to have plenty of phone and computer contact with her.

on to the next race.... right after philly we had to drive up to Quebec for the Tour De Beauce which started on tuesday! 250km of racing, a travel day and then a 6 day stage race. ouch!!! upon arriving in quebec i felt like i had been hit my a truck and then trampled by a heard of bulls. i really wasn't sure how i was gonna bring my body to race, but brian and glen convinced me that my body would come around once we got racing again. well, eventually my body did begin to come around, but not before 2 of the most horrific days on the bike i've had in a long time. the first two stages were absolute misery, filled with constant suffering and pretty much total mental and physical breakdown by the finish. i lost time both days and also had begun to watch the best young rider jersey slip out of my reach which was tough to see, knowing that had i come to this race fresh and at my best, these races would have been near perfect for me. on the 3rd day, things began to turn around. Glen, Brian and Tom rode like maniacs all day keeping Teddy and I up front and out of the wind. i can't say how crucial and helpful this was since the day would end on the beast of a climb, Mount Megantic and serious time gaps were sure to happen. The climb was insane. only the 2nd mtn top finish i've ever done and also one of the hardest climbs i've ever raced on, but I rode alright and ended up 15th on the day, putting time into the columbian kid who was leading the best young rider competition. It wasn't a massive result in itself, but the team had finally got things to click a bit and set us up for a good stage 4.

Stage 4 was a double day. 15km TT in the morning and a crit that didn't count for GC in the afternoon. Once again i wasn't sure what to expect out of my smashed legs, but it went quite well. I ended up 8th on the day and also was able to take over the red jersey as new leader of the best young rider classification. Zirbel crushed the course, holding a top 3 time for almost the entire day until that last few heads of state took the the course. still, Tom ended up with a highly impressive 6th place.

The next 2 days were a brutal set of circuit races. rad courses with wacky amounts of climbing and all kinds of leg breaking attacks throughout the days. stage 5 got whittled down to a select front group of 30 in which both sheedy and I found ourselves in. brian rode like a hauss once again making sure i was up at the front ready for any more splits that would happen. The last stage was more of the same and also the hottest of the days at a blistering 95 degrees! a long drag of a climb that was popping guys off the back from lap one and then a roller coaster decent back to the start finish. with our reduced team, we played it safe and stayed out of trouble all day to finish in the whittled down bunch and clinch the red jersey for Priority health, ending a hard week of racing.

doing this from my bros computer so pics are n/a but i will see what i can do in the next day or two.

Back in MI now for a few days of R and R. hope the summer is treating you all nicely!

ciao ciao

and another one

a quick update to report some not so good news.

i crashed again. last lap. glen pulls an amazing effort and brings me and robbie in the top 10 wheels coming into the final and crucial climb with only maybe 2 miles to go. then BAM! someone sprints up my right side, hooking the back of my handelbars and sending me into a disco spin. game over. not cool. one of these days it will come together though.

heading to philly tomorrow. wish i was there today. wish me luck and no crashing. comments are fun too.

ciao for now.

BB

take a gander....

i realized today that i have my camera and battery charger but no batteries. Luckily Tom Z was nice enough to sponsor me with a pair of AA's for the coming days, as well as these dandy pics. thanks Tom!

if your looking for carnage pics, headhere.

good, bad, worst and ok

another entry for die hard "brent bookwalter" fans. no pictures once again, just the report.

we're finally settled into a place which we'll stay for more then a day. the past few days have been crazy to say the least. ups and downs as usual but i have to say more downs in this stretch. we went into the CSC invitational thinking it couldn't get much worse then captech, but it did.

Good: We started the race off great. Everyone got into good position early and was looking strong. After Brad Huff of Tiaacreff escaped solo only a few laps in, Glen put in a hard attack, and continued to string out the pack once caught. as soon as he let up, i hit it HARD! and got a gap right away, bridging to Huff. We instantly went to work and before too long had built a 20 second gap. That early in the race i really wasn't thinking we would stay away long, at least without being joined by more riders, but we were making a good go at it. later we were joined by another punk, who's name i will not mention because i really don't think too much of him after his childish behavior then ensued. anyway, we kept hammering away and byt his time i was getting a bit wacked.

Bad:i sat on a bit trying to recover and just as i was starting to pull through again i ate it. thats right. crashed! and that was it. game over.

Robbie and Teddy rode strong to finish solid, in a destroyed field of only 25 or so.

Worst: Aside from my tumble, Eddy and Rich also went down, both ending up in the hospital. Rich with a schnazzy 15 stitches in his chin. Eddy with a broken pelvis. thats right kids. that big bone that holds your legs in place. not good. the team sure is gonna miss Eddy int he coming weeks, not just on the bike but as a friend on the road as well.

So So: Lancaster was yesterday. 90 miles of brutal ups, downs and accelerations. my body was a bit thrashed from the day before. riding in break and crashing are both hard on the body, but i was set to give it a go and see how i felt. i made the selection to the last lap, then dumped my front wheel into a pothole and cracked it. Knowing a wheel change at that point was impossible, I fumbled with my front brake enough to get the wheel to clear through, but in doing so I lost all my position for the most crucial part of the course. Gaps started to form and I cramped myself and soon found myself off the back with a group of others. I surfed through the caravan for a bit, then rode it in.

Hopefully we’ve hit our quota for “hard luck” days and will be on the up now. With such a young team we should be growing and improving every race.

Time to go motor pace off a few amish horse and buggys.

ciao

$4.00???????

Another pseudo-lame entry with nothing really exciting to report, but what else do I have to do?

Made it up to Arlington, VA yesterday for the CSC invitational crit which takes place today in a few hours. 100 laps, 100km at some rediculously high speeds. I think in a few minutes i'm gonna start spinning around in clockwise circles so i don't get dizzy once the race begins. CSC is here with one or two other euro teams. Last night in our hotel, there was some sort of fire or for some reason some of the "in-room" sprinkers went off creating quite a mess. they wouldn't let us back into the hotel for a long time. I guess a few floors above us were flooded and people had to be moved out. All of our team was in the clear except for Sheedy and Zirbel who had some water leak into their room from above so they had to be moved across the hall. The Hyatt hotel continued with its amazing performance this morning. Jake and I ventured to the resaurant for breakfast. $11 for pancakes which tasted like cardboard. they were even advertised to be topped with fruit but no such luck. only butter and syrup. who wants fruit when you can have butter???? i then proceeded to order, 1 cup of coffee. key word: 1!!!! they bring out a french press, pour me a cup and leave the press on the table. i say, "oh thank you, but i only want one cup." apparantly they don't sell 1 cup and the french press full of coffee i didn't drink cost me another $5. what a rip.

Oh, I almost forgot to update everyone on how the Captech Classic went the other night. I think absolute MISERY! is the best way to describe it. I got a sweet front row callup and felt great for about 5 laps. i won the first KOM sprint and then it was all downhill from there. i could give you a bunch of excuses but i just basically sucked. the only consoloation is that everyone except about 30 guys sucked i guess. I did get to experience some sweet heat exhaustion during the race. extreme overheating, chills, goosebumps and even a few puke episodes were all on the menu for me at some point during the race. ultimatley, i ended up pulling out with about 12 laps to go realizing the best i could hope for at that point was to hang on and finish just outside the top 30 since there were just over 30 guys left at that point. I really hope that knocked some kinks outa the system and opened me up because i don't wanna have to go through that again. we'll see. today's course isn't exactly taylor made for our team, but hopefully we can ride a bit better then we did on thursday night.

Lancaster tomorrow. Reading on Wed. and Philly on Sunday. we're in host housing all week. out in the middle of nowhere i think so the updates may be scarce. if your feeling inspirational, shoot me an email or a comment. i'll try to make the next one a bit more upbeat!

ciao for now.

jed, dorthy and the cats

we made it back to Richmond, VA for the second year in a row for the Captech classic which takes place on the hilly downtown streets tomorrow night. The drive out was long and i did my best to help out our mechanic BenO by sleeping a good bit so he could focus on all the driving. Good work Ben!!!

Jake and i are staying in the same host house as last year which is working out well. Jed and Dorty are a great young couple who have taken us in this year and last. tonight they let me borrow the keys to one of their cars to roll over to a neighboring suberb to see Clara! its only a been a week since she left MI but i gotta say i've been missin her a bunch and it was great to see her and get to spend a little time together before we get crackin at the racing tomorrow.

rode today with a few of the guys. not a bad one, just bloody hot! I'm workin on my new state of the art weather machine so we should be seeing pleasant temps and sunny skies in no time.

once again i've gone lame with the pics. no new ones bu t here's a shot from the last school assembly we did while i was back home.

captech tomorrow evening. probably one of the hardest crits all season. a dandy of a hill which provides for some solid selection. last year it was sorta a breakout race for our teamm as far as how we went about getting a result so hopefully we can pick up where we left off. the boys are lookin fit and everyone is psyched to get rollin!

oh! check out www.velonews.com and watch the "shop talk" clip from collegiate nats. some good recognition for collegiate cycling and some kind words from the best announcer in the buisiness, Dave Towle.

enough for now. if your lookin for more updates, be sure to head over to Jake the Snake's website. he's been doing daily updates on the happenings around here.

over and out

BB

MI

There's no way to recap all that has happened since my last update. I've had quite the break fromt he blogging world, but for good reason. since my last post i've raced collegiate nationals and made it back to MI. I'm sure you've all seen the report from nationals so i'll spare you the reading.

MI has been A ok. "A" ok beacuse i convinced my main squeeze Clara to come back with me. i think she was a little overwhelmed at the thought of venturing to the amazing state of Michigan since she had never been there, but she's takin to it quite well and it has been GREAT to be with her after the mayham of finals and collegiate racing has subsided.

aside from catching up on sleep and getting a bit of rest, i'm doing a few gigs with Priority Health. last week Wed. and tomorrow.... school assemblies. we get to talk to little kids about being active, eating healthy and all that good stuff. after our school time tomorrow its straight back to GR for some Grattan racing action.

pics and more updates to come

ciao for now

signed, sealed, delivered

finally done with my 8th and hopefully 2nd to last semester of college. the exam week was a bit rough but i'm done and one step closer to getting that rad piece of paper which will declare me an "educated" and potentially contributing member to society. whoo hoo!

I've been celebrating in fine fassion. sleeping in till 11 and going about the day with nothing that even comes close to resembling a schedule. I dig it. riding has been mellow to help the body recover from the school stress and the hectic race schedule the past few weeks. here's a few training action shots.




No racing this weekend, but I did race Friday night in Spartenburg, SC at a criterium which is part of the US crit series. It was great to see the crit crew on our team that didn't do shanendoah. the course was a narrow, .5 mile action packed rectangle which meant we were treated to a mind numbing 70 laps. To top things off, it was raining and very wet! not the kinda race i get really psyched for, but i was looking forward to opening the legs up a bit after a few easy days after shanendoah. Once we got rolling, it wasn't all that bad. the wet roads actually served to keep things interesting and a little more singled out. my legs felt fairly peachy and i gave a go at a few moves early on, soon realizing that a couple of the other big teams weren't into the breakaway thing. from there i just tried to keep it safe and in good position. had a fun front flat tire with about 12 to go, but got back in there and did my best to get back up front to help Rich in the sprint. we couldn't quite latch onto eachother among the chaos of the final laps but we both punched it in for top 10's. me in 8th and rich right there in 10th.

All of boys seem to be riding good and are getting their race legs back after not doing any racing since the cali stint. We're still working the details out on getting organized in these flat and fast bunch kicks, but i'm sure we'll put it together before too long. I think we're in good shape heading into the next block of races. we're a bit behind on the actual racing this year since we didn't get to do tour of cali or tour of georgia, but eventually its gonna pay off as i'm sure many of the teams are starting to get a bit tired this time of year. We have a full book of matches and we're going to lightin them up very very soon!!

the LMC crew is heading out to Kansas on Tuesday for collegiate road nationals. my last collegiate road nats so hopefully they turn out to be a rockin time with some swell racing. Our team is looking great and i think everyone is ready to rip it. You never know what is gonna happen at collegiate nats. its probably one of the weirdest races ever. 100 or so riders and hardly any of them have ever raced against eachother, especially in a situation where each team only is allowed to race 4 riders per event. makes for an interesting and somewhat challanging dynamic where some pretty odd things can happen, but we're all excited and ready to give it a go. TTT on friday, RR sat and Crit on Sun. Wish us luck!

ciao for now

One more day

2 exams, 1 research paper and 4 smaller papers to finish. then i'm done, for the semester.

still i thought i needed and little more procastination to allow for another update. the guys at blackbird images were kind enough to let me know i could use any of their shenandoah pics for the blog, and we all know how fun pictures of very very good looking people are. they're probably a bit heavy on the "brent" but hey, this is my blog.

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.