Brodie Chapman signs with FDJ for 2020
After two seasons with American team Tibco-SVB, Aussie racer Brodie Chapman will join French outfit FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope in 2020.
“From the moment [general manager] Stephen Delcourt reached out to me about joining FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, I have been encouraged and motivated as an athlete and a person,” Chapman said. “I look forward to what [the team] can bring out in my racing, and how I can play an important role in the team.
“I can’t wait to go to new races, join accomplished and upcoming riders, and learn French!”
Delcourt was similarly excited about the prospect of welcoming the 28-year-old.
“The arrival of Brodie shows the team’s ambitions for 2020,” Delcourt said. “Brodie is one of the best climbers in the world as she proved at the Tour of California, in Colorado [Classic] and at the Flèche Wallonne.”
In announcing the signing, Delcourt paid tribute to Chapman’s aggressive racing style, saying she’s “not afraid of embarking on long solitary raids with one goal: victory! Brodie will also be an asset on technical courses like Strade Bianche. As a former mountain biker she is very comfortable on [gravel roads].
“She joins our Australian community and strengthens the historical ties between her country and FDJ. We are sure she will shine under our colors.”
Chapman burst on to the pro scene in January 2018 when she won the inaugural Women’s Herald Sun Tour. Riding for the Australian national team, Chapman got away solo in the race’s lone road stage and held off a chase from world time trial champion Annemiek van Vleuten to claim the stage. Chapman was able to defend her overall lead through the following day’s time trial to win the general classification. She signed with Tibco-SVB a short time later.
The 2019 season has proven particularly successful for Chapman, with the mountain biker-turned-roadie claiming five victories. In late January she won the Gravel and Tar La Femme one-day race in New Zealand while racing for an Oceania Confederation representative team. She then went on to win two stages and the overall at the notoriously difficult Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, USA.
In July she developed her palmares further with a stage win at the Tour de Feminin in the Czech Republic. In August she was second on a stage and overall at the Colorado Classic behind a rampaging Chloe Dygert-Owen, who won all four stages solo and took out every classification on offer.
Chapman is the latest in a line of Australian riders to join FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope. Carlee Taylor raced with the team in 2012, followed by Jess Allen in 2013 and Sarah Roy and Kimberley Wells in 2014. Shara Gillow has raced with FDJ since 2017 while Lauren Kitchen joined in 2018 and continues into next season.
First started in 2006, FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope was originally known as Vienne Futuroscope. It raced under that guise until 2014 when it became Poitou–Charentes.Futuroscope.86. It has raced under its current name since 2017.
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