I really thought BMC’s Brent Bookwalter was going to hang on for the win in today’s Giro opener until I watched Sky’s Bradley Wiggins rippin’ those Amsterdam corners without coming off his aero’ bars. Hijo, madre, puto, cabron. Like the man says, you can’t win if you don’t play, and Wiggo’ is most definitely a player. Chapeau to him.
And chapeau to Bookwalter, too, for holding onto the hot seat as long as he did. “I am a little speechless — my head is still spinning a little bit,” Bookwalter said afterward. “I really had no expectations of doing a ride like that going into it.”
He even nipped his team captain, world road champ Cadel Evans, who gave Bookwalter an attaboy for the effort.
“It’s a very special situation to have a guy like Cadel come in to say, ‘Impressive ride,’ it really means a lot,” Bookwalter said. No doubt.
I have a soft spot for time trials. My first race was a TT — the Colorado time-trial championships on the old Strasburg course, back in 1987 or ’88 — and I actually won a couple as a masters racer, one in Colorado (the Skyline Drive TT) and the other in New Mexico (the Tour de Los Alamos).
Mostly I was bringing a knife to a gunfight, though. Kent Bostick and John Frey ruled the roost when I lived in New Mexico, covering the 40km Moriarty course in 48 minutes and under when I was lucky to duck under 57 minutes. And there were plenty of other dudes in both states who could (and did) make me look like a chump without even putting it in the big ring.
Even so, it was fun. Special equipment, skinsuit and helmet — a guy gets to feel like a comic-book superhero for an hour or less. What’s not to like?
Mad Blog Media 
Patrick:
I did the Tour of Los Alamos around ’88. Also did a crit in Boulder (the one that has cobbles and goes up an awful climb in town on every lap) and then did a crit at a business park in Denver the next day. For part of that summer, I lived in ABQ in a little room off the garage at my future in-laws, trained almost daily with Bostick’s roommate–Mark Altamirano–and climbed Sandia at least twice a week. Also did the Tuesday night crits (I think it was Tuesdays) in a park in ABQ. Couldn’t tell you which park. I just followed Mark. You and I had to have raced in the same peloton that summer, si?
Hey, Jeff,
I remember Mark A. from back in the day … I was a geezer and a wanker even then, though, and mostly racing Cat. 4 or Masters 35 stuff. Didn’t even break the hour in my first shot at Moriarty during the state ITT champs in 1988. Bostick told me then that I would be “a certified bike racer” once I did so, and I finally got there, but just barely. Broke my collarbone the next March and didn’t race again until the Iron Horse on Memorial Day weekend, where I got murdered, finishing in 2:42. I mean, they were timing me with a calendar. I was impressively unimpressive.
I also remember those Tuesday-night crits. Cliff Loucks got crashed there the second or third time I made the trip down from Santa Fe and busted his c-bone. Dude used to rock this really stellar root-beer-colored Klein and kicked much ass.
If you remember Mark A., you must remember Jason Strauch, no? He was not exactly Mr. Popularity, as I recall, but he sure could TT and climb a friggin’ hill.
I don’t remember Jason specifically, but I remember the name. I pretty much hung out with Alti or with my girlfriend (current wiffee). I can’t even remember the first time I met Alti, but he’s who I rode with in ABQ (must have met him on a group ride). We stayed in touch for quite a while. He came to visit my wife and me when we were living on Town Lake in Austin. I think he’s out in California now. I see he still races (just Googled him).
Random memory–I stood on the scale after I’d been in ABQ for a month or so that summer. Clocked in at 126 lbs. totally desiccated and burned to a crisp.
I see from the records.pdf that my old friend Bill Meyers has the Moriarty record for the 65+ and 70+ classes. He visited us just after we moved here from Honolulu and went tearing up the NM-4 climb into the Jemez as though he had jet assist. Amazing guy.
Wonder what he could have accomplished had he been racing back when he was younger. Bill didn’t start racing until he retired from teaching at Stony Brook and moved to some little burg outside Steamboat. But we always teased him when we were all back at the Brook that his spelling was really bad because every once in a while his heart beat and it interrupted his typing. His rest pulse was below forty.
Jim Meyers, his brother, has some national Master’s titles of his own.
Here in It’ly proper, we can’t wait for the Giro to return to home soil. Great to see BMC doing well though their uniform is too much like Caisse d’Epargne’s. Yours truly will rent a car and drive up to Montalcino for that stage and head over to the Terminillo stage with the wife the following day. It’s great to be here during the Giro and yesterday the entire Mille Miglia car rally passed through Viterbo — never know there were so MANY Mercedes 300 Gull-wings!
I never could figure out why the feds never put more TT on the calander, if they had it would have got people to join and more license’s equals more money.