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 nine individual national titles in Mountain Bike, Road and Cyclo-Cross disciplines.[5] He graduated from Lees-McRae in 2006 with a BS in Biology. Bookwalter was crowned United States national under-23 time trial champion the following year. In 2009 he won the prologue in the Tour of Utah.[5]
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.[6]
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.[8] 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, where he also finished on the overall podium.[5] He won the second stage of the 2015 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, a mountaintop finish, to claim the yellow jersey[9] which he would wear for two days before ultimately finishing second overall to teammate Rohan Dennis. The following year he would take another podium finish on home soil in the Tour of California. That year he would also compete for Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the road race and time trial.[5]
Bookwalter joined Mitchelton–BikeExchange in 2019, where he took on the role of road captain, helping the team to stage victories in all three Grand Tours and taking a seventh place finish in the 2020 Strade Bianche. In June 2021 Bookwalter announced that he would retire from competition at the end of the season.[5]
Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
Sprints classification
Giro d'Italia
Tour de France
Vuelta a España
Media related to Brent Bookwalter at Wikimedia Commons
