Brodie Chapman: Going back to an Australian summer where the stars aligned

Five years ago, when Brodie Chapman was at the Santos Tour Down Under, she was  turning left as she came in the door of the Hilton Hotel, which serves as race headquarters in Adelaide, heading for the media room and watching those in the professional ranks going straight toward the elevators instead with a degree of awe. 

“I remember seeing all the riders come in and out and just admiring the small thing, like they have track pants that say the team name on them and I'd think ‘that's so cool’," Chapman told Cyclingnews as she looked back on what turned out to be a pivotal race for her, even though it was an edition where she didn't pin on a number.

Jump forward from that day to 2023 and she's now walking into the race among the favourites list and with the name of one of the world’s top cycling teams emblazoned on the new Australian champion's jersey on her back.

"Now that I'm here in it, I have to remember how much I appreciated those little things," said Chapman. "It’s not lost on me how awesome it is. But, I definitely feel like I worked hard to get to where I am.”

That early hard work started to pay dividends when Chapman made a mark too big to ignore at the Australian Road National Championships that year of 2018. She came sixth in the elite/U23 road race with a gritty ride, where her determination, and ability to go toe to toe with some of the best riders in the world, was clearly on display. That meant that as she came to Adelaide for her work producing content on the race an opportunity on the bike was also brewing.

"I spoke to Brad McGee (then a key figure in the Cycling Australia road programme) and he effectively let me tell my story,” said Chapman looking back on a meeting which had her excitedly sweeping back into the media room with a big grin on her face and an air of excitement in her step.

“I was definitely not on a traditional pathway to the WorldTour but I think in women's cycling there is not necessarily a traditional pathway anyway.

“The stars aligned that summer.”

Unknown no more

Those discussions with McGee led to Chapman securing a spot in the national team to race at the women's elite event at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, where Chapman ended up coming fifteenth, and the Herald Sun Tour. That ended up being a race that put her on the map well beyond Australia.

It was a two stage race with day one delivering a solid climb that topped out around 20km from the Healesville finish line, but with only the shortest of time trial hit outs on day two. On stage one the unknown quantity of Chapman set out on the attack on the final climb. A gutsy move but surely a rider of the quality of Annemiek van Vleuten with the strongest of teams around her would reel her in. The Dutch rider tried but left the chase too late to catch her on the climb and then even a flying descent wasn’t enough.

Chapman had held off one of the world’s best on stage 1 by eight seconds and even the time trial power of Van Vleuten wasn’t enough to reel that advantage back in the space of the just 1.6km stage 2. The rider who grew up in Queensland not only won  the stage but the Women’s Herald Sun Tour too and it was no surprise when after that the news dropped that she had signed her first professional contract to race internationally as a professional cyclist.

The Australian summer season had been good to Chapman that year, and it would be again, and again.

"In the past I have not necessarily been my like flying peak form for the Australian racing, except for probably that Herald-Sun Tour year but I've always managed to do something impressive," said Chapman. "You don't have to be in ridiculous form to win a race, things just have to happen to fall your way and you have to respond."

In 2019 that response netted her a top ten in the National Championships, victory during a quick trip over to New Zealand to race at Gravel and Tar La Femme, plus third overall at the Women's Herald Sun Tour while in 2020 it was a scorching attack to take victory at the 1.1 ranked Race Torquay along with another pair of top tens at the National Championships and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Then after two years away with the borders closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chapman came back in"really good shape" and straight away delivered the biggest Australian summer haul of them all.

It was a perfectly played effort with her new Trek-Segafredo teammates in the road race at the Australian National Championships, they were outnumbered but it was a trio that managed to outclass the rest of the field – Lauretta Hanson playing into her long range strength in one break, Chapman then launched early on the final lap and even if she had got caught they still had Amanda Spratt waiting in the wings. But Chapman wasn't caught and even had time to relax and celebrate her solo victory coming into the line.

Always more

The Trek-Segafredo rider was now headed to the Women's Tour Down Under to join more of her new teammates with a coveted national title in hand, meaning she'd join a team of riders who had worn an impressive array of prestigious jerseys with one of her own. To make her start to the Australian summer even sweeter she also secured a podium in the time trial, coming third in her debut showing on Tuesday.

"I would have been really happy with a medal at Nationals because I've never gotten a medal or anything before in any event so to come away with two was awesome," said Chapman. 

There will also be a hint of nostalgia for Chapman as she lines up at Saturday January 14's  Schwalbe Classic curtain raiser and the Tour Down Under stages in Adelaide and its surrounds from January 15 to 17, with so many good "vibes and memories" not just from her pivotal year in the media room, but also before. 

"I first came here with all my friends and we would just ride every day and stay in your chammy for 12 hours and go and watch people on Willunga and eat good food," said Chapman. "That kind of nostalgic feeling is still within me, you know, it's cool to experience this from all these different perspectives.”

Probably the most sought after perspective, though, is the one riders see from the top of the podium. Teammate Spratt has shown she can be a powerful force at the Tour Down Under, sweeping up overall victory three times. Though at Nationals Chapman proved the team also has another card to play, and the course could work to her attacking strength, with a generous helping of climbs but not the long alpine ascents where climbers like Spratt are at their absolute best.

"We want to put on a good show for the fans and the little Brodie Chapmans out there that are in their chammy for too long on the side of the hill getting sunburnt," she said with a chuckle, looking back to her days as a spectator. "And just enjoy it, my family and friends will be here."

Then after the Tour Down Under the racing shifts back to Victoria and the Deakin University Elite Women's Race at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday, January 28. It is a 143km Women's WorldTour race with the type of short punchy climbs that suit an attacking rider like Chapman

"By the time I get to the end of January, I'll have a lot more race fitness than right now and Cadel's, you know I love that race," said Chapman. "And it's a bit different this year because we have two ascents of Challambra so I'd really like to be on form for that race."

Whatever happens the rest of the summer, the driven rider who has morphed from a downhill mountain biker to a National Road Series rider, a professional cyclist with Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank and  then a top domestique at WorldTour team FDJ Suez looks to have set in train a new stage in her evolution as a cyclist as she starts out on her first year with Trek-Segafredo.

"There's always more,” Chapman said.