"They were keen to have the final word, but it doesn't carry much weight for me"

Olympic medallist Matt Richardson caused quite a stir in the track cycling echelons when he announced a nationality change, leaving behind Australia to represent Great Britain. As this came quite out of blue, officials from AusCycling were quite infuriated by the news, banning Richardson from ever representing Australia again.

The 25-year-old doesn't seem all too phased by the news despite being slightly suprised by the turn of events. "I didn’t know it was coming," Richardson said in a UCI Track Champions League press conference, as reported by Cycling Weekly. "I found it quite interesting. I guess they were just keen to get one last, final blow, one last, final word. But ultimately, I had left three months ago."

"I’m not sure where the confusion has come from, but I thought it was pretty obvious that, by wanting to ride for GB for the rest of my career, that would mean I didn’t want to ride for Australia for the rest of my career. It’s almost like you leave your job, and three months later, they go, 'Well, you’re fired!'"

"It’s just words on a piece of paper, really, and they don’t really carry much weight for me," he added. The 25-year-old made his debut in GB colours during the Track Champions League last weekend. An experience that "gave chills", he admitted.

He's now hopeful the relationship between him and Australia will be repaired at some point in the future. "I really did think I repaid them with all the results, you know, the World Championship, the three Olympic medals that I returned. Unfortunately, noise was created around the issue, but I sleep well at night knowing that that noise didn’t come from myself. Hopefully in the years to come, myself and AusCycling can come to some sort of understanding. But for now, there we go. They’ve had their final word. Hopefully we can just put it to bed and just enjoy riding in circles."