Leigh Hoffman is adamant he has nothing against the old Australian cycling sprint teammate he once partnered to world championship glory but who's now racing for gold against him in the colours of Team England.
Yet while showing infinite good patience in offering a straight bat to a plethora of questions designed to stir the pot with his mate-turned-rival Matt Richardson, it's still pretty clear how dearly Australia's champion would love to take his scalp.
How did he feel about combating the defector who, at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, was his teammate in Australia's gold medal sprint trio?
"Oh yeah, fine. Yeah," deadpanned Hoffman replied when quizzed by journalists at the team HQ in Glasgow.
Any feelings there? "No, no, nothing at all."
Do you text him at all? "Nah, not at all."
Do you chat to him outside competition? "No, not at all."
Do you now have more motivation to beat Richardson? "No, not really."
Was he aware how much everyone back home was fascinated by the battle between the Australian sprint champion and the former holder? "Well, I'm still getting questions about it two years later, so yeah," he responded, good-naturedly.
If the 26-year-old South Australian, the country's biggest sprint hope at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome next week, sounded just the faintest bit weary with the interrogation, maybe it was because he was being asked so many more questions about his old teammate than himself.
Yet in between his dead bat to the barrage, Hoffman would occasionally offer the odd, more extravagant shot which suggests just how wounding it must have been after the Olympics in 2024 when his old mate suddenly decamped sensationally to Team GB.
"Like we'd never experienced something like that. You grow up racing someone, and you think you're both Aussies, but then it's not. Yeah, that's life," shrugged Hoffman.
"It's definitely weird seeing him in GB kit. At the time, it just came out of nowhere. We'd just finished the games, brought a few medals back for Australia, and then he went on holiday and never came back. But that's what it is."
Perhaps, there had been a change in their relationship when the English-born Richardson, now in GB colours, came to race him back in Perth earlier this year?
"Oh yeah, I think so. But like, that's life, really. Like, I'm not really gonna be sad about it or anything. Just gotta focus on riding my bike — and I think he does the same as well," shrugged Hoffman.
And, of course, we had to know what he thought about Richardson's comment that the Australian cycling system was like high school, compared to Team GB's Hogwarts.
For once, Hoffman offered his most extravagant shot.
"Yeah, like it's funny that the quote keeps coming back to bite him in the ass," he smiled.
"I mean, I'll say this: like I'm excited to beat everyone in the world. It's just another domino to fall, hopefully."
