Matthew Richardson has admitted he would probably have worn body armour for the Japanese race which put him in hospital, if the rider responsible had declared his intention in accordance with race protocol.
In a conversation with the Stanley Street Social podcast which ran to more than two hours, the British sprinter admitted he had had to learn how to handle the physical aspects of Japanese racing.
He revealed that it was the first time he had broken a bone in track racing… and the nurse who treated him had had a particular interest in that race.
‘The way it looked on the video afterwards is exactly how it felt,’ he explained. ‘I didn’t see it for probably about 24 hours afterwards. In the moment, it felt so hard. And I was just like – man, if this guy is just like brushed me and I’ve gone down that hard, what am I doing?
‘We have to declare our tactic before the race, so the fans know what you’re going to do, and then they can make better judgments on how the race is going to go.
‘I can’t remember what his tactic was, but it wasn’t ‘fight me’ – which you can do. You can be like – my plan is to battle with that person, come next to you, start leaning on you, maybe a couple of headbutts.
‘But there is a line, and that line was crossed that day, massively in my opinion.
‘Sole purpose to take me out’
‘I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t expect to see it coming because like I said, he didn’t declare that he would fight for (Harrie Lavreysen)’s wheel. If that was his tactic coming in, then I would have won body armour probably underneath just in case we did come down.
‘Me being in a line with Lavreysen is almost a guaranteed W(in), like the GOAT of leadouts – and me following him as well, so I’m sitting behind him chilling. And that’s obviously a threat for them.
‘So he’s just dropped his line for the sole purpose to take me out – which the keirin fans, I don’t think, were very happy about, because it’s not what he said he was gonna do.
‘Glued to the floor’
‘It was the first time I’d been in a final with another international rider where we had had a line together. So me and Harrie have come round the back straight, we’ve got a lap to go, and I’m like – good, all right, just settle now. And then I was on the floor, and that was it.
‘But it was so hard. I went from vertical to 90 degrees before I even hit the ground. It was crazy. I’ve always gotten up after a crash. Whenever I’ve crashed, I’ve always been able to get up and – like, you jog it off, you know what I mean?, even if it hurts.
‘And I was like glued to the floor. Like I just couldn’t move. And it was like my whole right side was on fire. Like it was just so bad.
‘But the first thing that happens is they just drag you off the track. Next thing I know is just like two arms under my arms and I’m just like dragged. Like my heels are just like along the floor. like full, yeah, dragged off onto the grass because the race is coming around, right? It’s not like UCI where they’re just like, right, flags, whistles, out on the track. There is a race on for a lot of money. So you were just dragged.
‘Risk was worth the money’
‘We know the risk coming in. The risk that we knew coming in was worth the money. If riders raced the way that rider raced every day – not worth the risk. Yeah, right? Not worth the risk. But that doesn’t happen. A lot of people have said, they’ve just never seen anything like that before. Which is a shame that that happened to me.
‘I think deliberately swinging out to turn left as hard as you possibly can is unacceptable.
‘I’ve broken my scapula. It’s the first time I’ve ever broken a bone. So even though I’ve crashed multiple times in track cycling, I’ve always managed to seem to roll out of it or crash well. Even in this scenario, I although I still broke my scapula and had a lot of damage to my hip, I think it was almost best case scenario.
‘The nurse that was actually looking after me was betting on the race. Actually he had bet on me to win.’
‘Not a skill you want to develop’
Richardson admitted that he had had to learn to deal with body contact, during his time in Japan. ‘I was super nervous to like do it the first time and then I did it and it worked. And they went backwards – and I was like, sweet.
‘There was only probably three total races where I was actually like leaning on someone and getting my head involved a little bit. So it’s not as if I’ve had a year of shoulder work and head work to really up the skills. Plus it’s not a skill you want to develop. If someone starts coming around me in a keirin, and I’m just like, oh, shoulder. Oh, no, no. Not allowed to do that. That’s not what you want.
‘There’s a lot of completely clean keirin races. But there are definitely some guys that enjoy getting their shoulders involved – and I think I met one of them.’
