Matthew Richardson's brutal response after cyclist handed lifetime ban for leaving Australia

Star cyclist Matthew Richardson has hit back at Australia's governing body after copping a lifetime ban for defecting to Great Britain. Richardson - who was born in England - represented Australia and won three medals for the green and gold at the Paris Olympic Games this year. However, he has since decided to turn his back on Australia and represent the country of his birth.

Richardson's decision has caused a massive stir and resulted in AusCycling handing the 25-year-old a lifetime ban, which he has brutally described as "just words on a piece of paper (that) don't carry much weight for me." The star cyclist has already suited up successfully for Great Britain but said an AusCycling review that was released on Monday "was a bit of a shock". He added: "I didn't know it was coming," and "I guess they were just keen to get one last blow, a final word."

AusCycling sought a worldwide two-year ban on Richardson after arguing that he threatened their intellectual property by taking his bike with him after Paris. But Richardson said he was never worried the worldwide ban would be enforced and said he kept the bike so as to not arouse suspicions about his defection to Great Britain.

Richardson disputed the intellectual property charge that formed part of AusCycling's review and said his bike was just an off-the-shelf Argon anyone could buy. He insisted that he'd returned all AusCycling's equipment and only took it initially as not doing so would have aroused suspicions.

"If I'd spoken to my coach and said, 'I'm going to spend six months in Europe to the end of the year, but I'm not going to bring any bike'. He would have gone, 'What are you doing then?'." As for the life ban, he said: "I knew a long time ago that that was never going to be upheld. That was just words on a piece of paper that, again, don't hold any weight."

The two-time Olympian says he's "respectful" and "thankful" to AusCycling and argued that he repaid their investment with his results. And Richardson hoped in time that he and the governing body could "come to some sort of sort of understanding" about his switch. That could prove problematic after the bitterness in AusCycling's review which said he "acted in a way which conflicted with the values of AusCycling, the Australian national team and the broader cycling community".

Matthew Richardson's brutal response to AusCycling

Richardson's response to the review is unlikely to help. Of his lifetime ban from AusCycling he said: "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. It's almost like, you leave your job, and three months later they go, 'Yeah, well, you're fired'. 'Well, I already left.' It was just words on a piece of paper, and don't carry much weight for me."

The drama comes after Richardson made a superb start to his career as a Team GB rider, beating Dutch ace Harrie Lavreysen in the opening round in both sprint and kierin at the weekend's UCI Track Champions League in Paris. Those results saw him reverse the standings from the Paris Games, with the pair set to meet again later in the week.

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Richardson - who was born in the UK but moved to Australia when he was nine - said "hearing the announcer call my name, representing Great Britain, was a really special moment". The 25-year-old said the move back to the country of his birth has been quite stressful though and that he's been "out of a suitcase for a few months".

"I've just spent all day building furniture in my flat, trying to move into a new home... nothing about that to me is perfect preparation," Richardson said. "Although it may seem all sunshine and rainbows over here, it's been a stressful couple of months...

"I've always been respectful to AusCycling and been very thankful for everything they did for me over the years. And, I really did think I repaid them with results. Unfortunately noise was created. But I sleep well at night knowing that that noise didn't come from myself. Hopefully, in years to come, myself and AusCycling can come to some sort of understanding, but for now I hope they've had their last word, we can put it to bed and enjoy riding in circles."

with AAP