When he lived in Australia, Matthew Richardson used to wake up in the morning and watch replays of the British National Track Championships on YouTube, the event taking place in the dead of night for the then Perth resident. Now, he’s the holder of three British titles of his own, having clean swept the sprint events on his championships debut.
The Olympic silver medallist won every heat and final he competed in across the weekend, and convincingly, too. He opened his British account on Friday, with victory in the individual sprint, and on Saturday hauled back a 0.3-second deficit in the team sprint final to win by 0.6 seconds.
The 25-year-old then rounded out the weekend by laying waste to the keirin final, attacking long with two laps to go, and winning with daylight to second place.
“I was confident in my legs,” he smiled to Cycling Weekly afterwards. “I knew that if I went at a bit of a ridiculous point in the race, full gas, I’d probably come away with it.”
Ahead of the championships, Richardson made no secret of his desire to win everything on debut. The UCI rankings listed him 10 places above the next best Brit. Still, he stressed, he tried his “absolute hardest” to honour the event.
“I’m super happy to achieve the goals that I set. I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself to win races like this, to be able to win national titles,” he said.
“I obviously hold myself to a high standard internationally, so that doesn’t change at a National Championships. I’m just glad to achieve [the treble].”
Richardson was the subject of a high-profile nationality swap last summer, when he announced his allegiance change from Australia, the country he represented at the Olympics, to the UK, the country he was born in, and where he lived until he was nine years old.
With the equivalent Australian championships not scheduled until next month, the 25-year-old now boasts the rare phenomenon of holding national titles in two different countries, the keirin and sprint champion of both.
Dressed in the livery of his birth country, does it make him feel more British? “Probably, to be honest,” he said.
“Being part of the racing and being in front of that amazing British crowd makes me feel British, hearing all those cheers for me, and all that support out there makes me feel British. Racing the National Championships just adds to that.”
BELL MAKES IT THREE
Richardson was not alone in scoring a treble of gold medals across the weekend. Lauren Bell, too, ruled over the sprint events, taking home all the same accolades.
“I knew I had good form, and I always think Nationals is quite a fun race to go to,” she said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself sometimes, so I try and just enjoy Nationals. When I’m enjoying it, I just have fun riding my bike, and a lot of the time, that’s when my [best] results happen.”
The Scot, a double winner last time round, came to this year's event straight from the European Championships, where she won silver in the team sprint.
“I was a wee bit tired,” she said. “This is my first time doing everything [all the sprint events] at Euros, and then coming straight to another race. I think from how well I backed up the promises at Euros, it’s pretty good. I’m really pleased overall with the weekend.”
While Richardson celebrated his treble by sitting up and counting to three on his fingers, Bell had to wait for her chance to celebrate on track. Her final event, the individual sprint, went down to a decider with European silver medallist Rhian Edmunds, who, after some deliberation from the commissaires, was relegated for straying out of her sprinter’s lane, and bumping into Bell.
“It was just a racing incident, there was no malice or anything,” the Scot said afterwards. “We both stayed up, which is the important thing.”
