Public Speaker Box

Part of being an athlete is the responsibility to young athletes, especially those in the community from which you hail. As I grew up I remember looking up to the inspirational leaders of sport in Canada. The athletes who spoke to me at various games growing up formed the athlete I have become today; the person I have become today.

So, imagine my excitement at the opportunity to become that athlete. To be given the opportunity to inspire other young athletes. I was given such an opportunity this week. While all my teammates went down in the blistering heat of the Cuba…I winged in north to Whitehorse, Yukon for the beginning of the Canada Winter Games. This will be the first Canada Games North of the 60th parallel, and the biggest Canada Winter Games ever. My home sport association asked me to be the inspirational speaker at the pep rally for the Yukon athletes. As I headed up for the games I had only the one event scheduled over the three days but I had a feeling I was in for more. After my two full days here I have done 2 radio interviews, one newspaper, one public speech, on dinner for all the sport ministers in Canada, one school appearance, and 2 team speaking engagements. What a thrust into a roll model position…and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my athletic career. I found myself facing the same questions I had as a young athlete and I realized I had answers for them. I felt like in some small way that I was helping these athletes, and to be doing it the northern setting that I had come from was very rewarding indeed. I hope I can continue on with this sort of work. Sport is first and for most about community. This is how sport reaches and improves community, and improves the lives of everyone it touches. I would like to thank sport Yukon for trusting me with the minds of there young talent. Good luck at the games.

HERE is a link to the an artical on my speech.

What made you boy….

Well I know all kinds of people always ask me where I am from and I try to discribe it. Well I was doinga little search on the old web tonight and I came across this some what cheesy promo video for the town I grew up in. Now, if you watch this video you will learn a lot about what I am all about, I worked in that star theater the year it opened…I turtle waxed that water slide, ran around that lake, swam in thouse hot springs before there was wood there went to that school, shot bottle rockets on teh baseball field, curled in that curling rink, road my first road bike down that highway. So I know it is cheesy to me…and maybe to you too….but it is the best way I can think of to really discribe my home town in this hot media world.

Tipping Point

Well I think the beatings on friday got me fired up for the points on saturday…I came out pissed and tried to stamp some authority on a race that I feel holds my future on the track. I qualified 2nd in my heat behind olympic gold medalist Mikhail Ignatiev. A good start no prizes but it got the job done and got me feeling better about my riding anyway.

The final came around again in only a few hours so I went back to my casino/hotel and ate a casino/hotel sammy…that was gross and not ideal but fuel anyway.

In the final it was pinned from the gun. I scooped some points in the first sprint then a dangerous group rolled away and I wasn’t there..bad move…but with me and a few others working for almost 60 laps we held them at half a lap and slowly pulled them back. Then once we where a group I rolled away. And who else was with you ask, Mikhail Ignatiev. Dude was a wrecking ball…oh yeah and did I mention he rode the team pursuit and won only 5 min before…the rest of the race was just him putting the wreck on…and me hanging on…in the final sprint I had a good turn of speed but bad position…with smarter riding and similar legs I can improve on the 8th place finish I had here…but it was a good start to a world cup season that I hope is on an upward trend…coming in I didn’t feel like I would ride very well…and thel legs didn’t feel great here. I rode with alot of fight but in the end the job got done…more or less. Anyway I will be heading home to BC and hopefully get a solid 2 weeks in before I head to Moscow…If I can keep my form moving in this upward direction I think moscow will be a good race for me.

Thanks for all the support and emails over the past few days…it helped a lot.

What’s Your Genus? - - - Quiz

As I promised, the Zrail team of crack scientist have been researching for weeks to assemble a Cycling Genus reference guide. They have come up with what they believe is a set of 8 Genii that represent every facet of the competitive cycling family. If you want to find out what they cam up with take this Quiz and see how you fit. Then you can also see the other Genii and how to beat your friends in a weekly race. write down your ansewers on that recipt you have in your walet from Subway. Then go to the results page, and match your anwers to the numbers, Cosmo…err….I mean MENS HEALTH style. Tally up the numbers. The number you have the most of is your genus. Click on the number at the buttom of the results page to see your results. Sorry it is not more web friendly but the html just didn’t work out for me. Come back here and click on the poll bellow…the Zrail
scientists are trying to make a pie chart that represents how the cycling population is divided into these Genii. Enjoy

* The findings in/on this website are no way factual and are not intended to reflect directly or indirectly on an individuals or groups of people in an informative way. So don’t take offence, this is fictional fun*

Athletic Narcissism…

Athletic Narcissism is something that every high caliber athlete will struggle with at some point. It is almost inevitable, you train and train and focus so much on your goals and how you can over come and be the best. You have to be confident in yourself and abilities, which in and of itself isn’t narcissistic. It crosses the line when all you talk about is yourself and what you do and you become convinced that you and your accomplishments are the most important thing in your own life. I have had some wake up calls in this area as of late. Not that I think I am a narcissist, but I feel these recent experiences have helped me move away from that.

Just yesterday I attended a wedding. The wedding was for someone who I conceder a very close friend. I haven’t spent much time with him since I began cycling but I still count him as one of my best friends. Throughout the wedding ceremony I began to realize something. As I saw him celebrate in his new wife, new life family and friends, another friend of ours who I had attended the wedding with mentioned that we could probably go because we where “at the bottom of this weddings food chain.” It got me to thinking. Who in this big world of ours would put me at the top of that food chain. Who in the world would count me as one of their very best friends? As I thought, I drew no names. I also started to think of who I would have as my best man. I came up with at Least 5 names…names of people who where significant enough in my life that they could easily deserve to be my BEST. Yet I doubt I had played a significant enough role in their lives to be considered there best. It seems that sport and total dedication to it has turned me into wedding plankton. This does not offend me. It is what I deserve, I am barely around enough to be important in my own romantic relationship, how can I expect that any of my friends would see me as playing a significant enough role to hold me any closer. But I will tell you one thing. I thing the narcissist died yesterday. Why should I be the most important figure in my own life when I am not that important to anyone else in the world. They world of a wayfarer athlete is a lonely one. It was a humbling experience and made me realize just how much I have sacrificed in only 4 years for this sport. I have gained a lot too, but when I do re enter real life, I will have a lot of meaningful work to do for all those people that mean so much to me.

I am almost done the Cycling Genus Quiz…just have a few more genus deffinitions to write up then you too can figure out your destiny with a simple nonsensical quiz.

The System is DOWN…

WHAT the shnitzel.

Some one has put a crash curse on me. I was rocking the wheels with mad skills ALL year and hadn’t crashed all year. (unless you count my “virtual” crash at toona which stimied my virtual GC) And now in my last Road race I biffaroony. Then in the last 10 laps of my last track race I eat it again. Concussing my brain meat. To top it all off, I come home to find my website has crashed so I can’t even gripe to my publix about my poor unfortunate luck. It is like a crash fest up in here. So here it all is, a back up of Blogany waiting to seep out onto the masses like the chemicals they are using to fumigate my girlfriends appartment as we speak…

Huh I hope that stuff doesn’t kill all forms of parisite. I mean lets be honest as a cyclist I am a bit a moocher, which doesn’t mean I am a spiecies of Parisite but it has to put ms in the same darwinian family…*gulp*
Here is a “virtual blog” for you…if my website didn’t crash it would have been up on monday…so just pretended…

Shades of grey…and black…and blue…and some off yellow???

Well I guess that is it…that is the year. I was just in Dieppe New Brunswick this past weekend for the Canadian Track Nationals. It was my most successful national championship ever. However I did unfortunately loose the 4km title to one Svien Tuft (props to him). Only by .5 of a second…it was close one…but tough to loose when that is my money maker. Faster next time I guess. I did however win the Points race…yeppiii…which to me is like the Paris Roubiax of track events. The hard man’s race. You have to be smart and on the rivet ever 3 min…and it has been 4 years coming. Since my first nationals I have wanted that event more than any of the others…and it was good to do it finally.

The rest of the weekend was interesting…eating lobster, crashing (no I don’t crash a lot anymore I have just had a bad run the last 2 weeks), and the always interesting…hanging out with the Regimbalds (you ABA members know what I’m talking about)

The conclusion I came to over the past weekend…I LOVE bike racing. It is just kick ass.
Check out this pic…how can anyone argue the P H fatness of that sport.

Image by: Don Ricker
Well I am into Video season now. And putting together a LOST Footage Vol. 2. Keep your RSS Feed troughs empty cause you will not want this one to be returned mail.

Good Luck to the Roadies going to worlds….
Keep the rubber side down (or at least at a 45 if you only turn left)

Z-bomb

On The DL

Well, things could be going a bit better. In the last week I have found myself on the disabled list. In other words, I have been having some knee issues, but the good news is I have been smart enough and have had enough help from doctors and physios around me that I have at least remained day to day. The bummer part is the races that I am missing because of it. Captech was like our teams home base race; CSC is, well its CSC - one of the most intense crits in the US. And today I will be missing Lancaster. It is unfortunate because I have been riding quite well but I guess that is life as a cyclist. I believe I have made the right decisions though. My knee is near better after only one week and starting anyone of these tough races could have put me further back. It is still hard to sit out what is one of the major peak times of the season. But it is for the greater good.

On another note, The Super hero Contest is over and SPIDERMAN has made a late surge from behind to nip the paper boy Robbie MC style at the line. Congratulations to the winner your prize pack will be mailed out mid month when I arrive back in Canada. And thanks to all who took part. I will try to cook up more interesting things later on. Better prizes too.

Anyway I leave for Pan Ams tomorrow so todays recovery of the knee will be crucial. Wish me luck.

OUR CAN SAW can saw any cans we saw…

Well to-to, we aren’t in AR-Kansas any more. The whirled wind tour is over. Joe-Martin and Tri-Peaks are done and the results are somewhat neutral and un-eventful. The trip was interesting we saw a lot of “goats” and one of these “beautiful” specimens that our expert bird watchers Russ and Brad identified as a “F%$#ing Beautiful Hawk”…right. They should spend more time out of the city….

On short it was a drive into Middle America to race bikes. The long highway time and low budget made this trip the ultimate topic for an Alanis Morissette song. Kind of a good time in the middle…but for the most part painful and to long. If she did write a song about our trip to OUR CAN SAW, it would probably go like this…

“Why did we have to go through Tennessee”

Waffle Houses, Signs, Burgers
Why God, Why?
Signs, Semis, Interstate 40
Why God, Why?

What have I done to deserve this Blue horror?
Surrounded on all sides with the Hell of Interstate 40
Like a Poe character, I’m wordy and alone
Why God, Why?

Hawks, Waffle Houses, Plains
Why God, Why?
Interstate 40, Plains, Burgers
Why God, Why?

What have I done to deserve this Blue disaster that is my life?
Surrounded on all sides with the Hell of Interstate 40
Like a Poe character, I’m wordy and alone
Why God, Why?

What have I done to deserve this Blue misery?
Surrounded on all sides with the Hell of Interstate 40
Like a Poe character, I’m wordy and alone
Why God, Why?

Why God, Why?
Why God, Why?
Why God, Why?
Why God, Why?

“…the chiseled, tree-trunk legs…”

The following update will be in visual form only. The pictures below taken by Bill McCarrick at buffalo2step photography (http://cvillebike.com/photos/v/2006TOS/).

We done good…Two of four sweaters, 1 win and 2 podiums in 7 days…none of it would have been possible with out the team. The skinny pro road like an ox when I needed him.

I leave you with this humorous referance found in the stage 7 update on cycling news.

” Over the past six days, Brent Bookwalter proved his mettle as an all rounder. He succeeded in the gruelling Blue Ridge Mountains. He excelled in the time trials. And in the finale, he took on the chiseled, tree-trunk legs of Rite Aid’s Zach Bell, one of Canada’s top track cyclists.” On of the mor interesting media references I have ever incountered…

I have lots more coming down the Z-Rail so stay tuned for films, contest updates and other tantilizing tubular titalation over the next week.

Contest Closed

Track Worlds completes what I consider to be a successful track campaign. It also starts a whole chapter in the cycling year of 2006. Now I am back in Virginia, back at the monastery…it seemed to work last time right. Over the next couple days I will be riding when weather permits (there is major thunderstorms in the forecast right now…and racing my first road race this year at the tour of Shenandoah. I am looking forward to it.
The Contest is officially closed…Christoph and I will be locking ourselves deep in the monastery cloister for some meditation and deliberation on your submissions and when smoke rises from the monastery BBQ the final 5 will have been selected for the final stage.
Also I will be working on a video from world championships that will include but is not limited to footage of mini super bike riding so stay tuned.