BMC Racing Team rider receives ‘nice confirmation’ of his improvement this season
American rider Brent Bookwalter clocked up his fourth big stage race runner-up slot of the year on Sunday when he finished second overall in the Tour of Alberta.
The BMC Racing team rider ended the new six day race eighteen seconds adrift of Garmin-Sharp neo pro Rohan Dennis. The latter finished second to Peter Sagan in the prologue, beating Bookwalter by eight seconds. He then extended that advantage to eleven seconds when he won an intermediate sprint on stage two, and then up to fourteen when he did the same one day later.
The gap went up to eighteen seconds at the end of that third stage, Dennis beating Bookwalter to nab the stage win and take over the race leader’s jersey.
From then until the finish Bookwalter tried to take the time back but was unable to do so. His runner-up slot follows similar placings in the Tour of Qatar plus the US national road and time trial championships. He also won a stage in Qatar [pictured].
“It’s a nice reminder that success often comes when you don’t expect it and you have to be open to opportunities and kind of seize the day,” said Bookwalter, who has clearly stepped up a level this year.
“It means a lot in my development as a rider. I’ve had two second-place overalls this year, which are my best-ever GC results. It’s nice confirmation of my improvement and, hopefully, I can keep going up from there.”
The race was a good one for the BMC Racing team. Aside from Bookwalter’s results, it also won stages via Silvan Dillier and Cadel Evans, and had a total of five riders in the final top twenty.
Unsurprisingly, given the latter stat, the squad was the winner in the team classification.
It was the sixth time that the team has carried off that distinction this year, with BMC Racing also best squad in the USA Pro Challenge, Amgen Tour of California, Tour of Oman, Tour of Qatar and the Tour de San Luis.
“Coming here, we were a little worried with how the courses were – that they weren’t super suited to our team,” said BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Jackson Stewart.
“We raced a little differently than normal, being aggressive and taking chances, and it paid off two days. And with the windy day, Brent capitalized on that. There were so many things that we weren’t even looking for that we got.”
Evans’ stage win was a very important one for the Australian, who placed third in the Giro d’Italia but then didn’t perform well in the Tour de France. It showed that he is coming back into decent form and sets him up mentally and physically for a good end of season. He is targeting the upcoming GP Cycliste de Quebec and Montreal races in Canada, the world road race championships and Il Lombardia.