For some, it may be hard to line up the version of Brodie Chapman that rode the Tour of Bright in 2016 with today’s consummate professional who loves racing so much she was pining on a number at the event in her off-season and helping add some WorldTour lustre to the club-run race in the high country of Victoria.
‘I don’t know if I like road racing’ had been the words echoing through Chapman’s head as she rode the Tour of Bright for the first time, nearly a decade ago.
And if jumping on the bike sounded like fun, Chapman would do it, even if it meant an enduro mountain bike event or a mid-summer singlespeed cyclocross race with a surfboard trophy. She’d routinely prove every step of the way how much raw talent was there – of course she won that full-size pink surfboard trophy and she may have also lapped some of the slower competitors out on course (i.e. me) twice in the process.
While the enjoyment and prowess was clear, the disciplined focus may not have been evident to some. Her domestic road team from those early cycling days may even have at one stage questioned whether she was taking it seriously enough – “they weren’t wrong” quipped Chapman in her typical tell-it-as-it-is style when the story was told in the relaxed brewery based presentation at the Tour of Bright earlier this month.
Chapman pulled on the skin suit of an Australian champion and rolled out on her time trial bike in Victoria’s high…
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