Matthew Richardson, the track cycling star who defected to Great Britain, has dismissed AusCycling's lifetime ban as "just words on a piece of paper (that) don't carry much weight for me."
The 25-year-old, who won three Olympic medals in Australian colours at the Paris Games, but has already since suited up successfully for the land of his birth, said the cycling body's review, released Monday, "was a bit of a shock. I didn't know it was coming," adding, "I guess they were just keen to get one last blow, a final word."
Richardson, who brushed aside claims that he had threatened AusCycling's intellectual property by asking to take his bike with him after Paris, said he was never worried about a worldwide two-year ban, despite AusCycling seeking one, as he knew it could not be enforced.
