Five Minutes with … Shane Cuthbertson
DECEMBER 17, 2007

Shane Cuthbertson works his way through the Last Man Standing course.

By Danny Brault
Photos by George Halmazna

There isn’t too much racing going on in Canada during December, so to get their fill, escape the cool Canadian winter, and to gain experience in one of the toughest off-road events of the year, six Canadians made the long haul down to Bulcher, Texas for the Red Bull Last Man Standing. The Canucks put forth a great effort, with everyone finishing inside the top 40 out of 100 racers. Calgary, Alberta’s Shane Cuthbertson made his first visit to the LMS and came home as the top finishing Canadian in sixth-place.

RXC: Shane, how are you doing?
Shane Cuthbertson: I’m good.

What is your routine through the week? Are you working a full-time job?
Oh, yeah [laughs]. It’s like an office job; I’m a welding inspector, but we have so much oil and gas stuff going on here in Calgary that I’m basically sitting behind a desk coordinating inspectors to look at equipment all over the world.

So when you’re not stuck behind a desk, when do you find time to train for events like the Red Bull Last Man Standing?
Just when you get the chance, evenings, weekends, every once in a while we’ll pop out for a ride, depending on weather conditions and that stuff.

Have you ridden much in the last couple of weeks?
We were riding quite a bit up to Last Man Standing. It came to the point where we had to put our spikes on and then we just go bomb around. It’s pretty much frozen up, probably like what you guys have out there.

I heard it was pretty cool in Texas, too, at the LMS?
Yeah, on Friday, during qualifying, they had a record high of 80 degrees or something, and then on Saturday it was kind of dark and dreary and a little bit chilly. When we were leaving on Sunday, it was minus something.

It was your first time at the LMS and looking at the results, you did pretty well.
It was my first time. I was pretty pumped with how things went. I figured I would try one of these extreme events, because I’ve done the World Enduros and all that kind of stuff. I’m like, how do I get close to these top guys? I thought maybe if we go to one of these extreme events, our technical capabilities that we’ve learned from riding in the mountains might help me out.

From rider’s comments and photos, it looks like the course was tougher than ever.
That’s what I heard, Marty [Halmazna] was down there last year and he said it was definitely tougher this year. For me, being my first time, I was expecting the worst. I didn’t really think it was that bad. There were some stuff where you had to lift, struggle and push your way, but if you kept plugging away it wasn’t too bad. I thought that’s exactly what it was going to be. The closer I got to front of the pack, the better it got, because it wasn’t so hammered.

How did you get down to Texas? Did you drive?
No, we flew down there. I had a shop out of Kansas City supply me with one of their demo bikes. It was good; I hooked up with them and it was almost like the best we get: fly in, ride a bike, and go home [laughs]!

It sounds like there was quite the crew of Canadians.
Yeah, there were six riders and we had a ton of support people. We had our own Canadian corner!

Cuthbertson is interested in racing the Red Bull Romaniacs event in the spring.

So are we going to see you join Marty in Erzberg?
I don’t know if I will make it out to that, but I have my eye on Red Bull Romaniacs. It’s just after Erzberg, I think. That looks like something I would really like; you really put a lot of effort into it and Romaniacs is a five-day event, so you get more bang for your buck. I think we would do really well; that’s right up the Canadians alley.

It’s great to see Canadians finishing well at these tough off-road events, seeing as how we don’t even have a real national series or this kind of event to race at home.
For sure! That’s a key part of it. We’re trying to get the off-road movement going in Canada. We’re starting to get decent races and some good exposure and we have some guys who are doing really well. I think it’s on the upswing.

I know that a proposal has been sent to the manufacturers with regards to a national series next year, but now I’ve heard that it looks bleak because of the dollar.
I got that message too. I think even the distributors are starting to feel it. I think they are interested in holding an extreme event later in the year. If Lawrence [Hacking] and his crew get a grasp on that, they’ll get something good going off that. That would be neat, too, a Canadian event to attract some big US guys to come play around. I’m keeping my fingers crossed; hopefully something will shake out here!

Do you have any plans to do some riding or racing over the next few months? Or will you wait until the weather warms up?
Pretty much holding off until springtime. I have a blown ACL so I’m looking to have that fixed. I went to see the doctor in September and my next step is an MRI, which is February. Then my next step is consulting with a surgeon that is in middle of `08. I’m just banging my head off the desk, like what am I supposed to do, just walk around on this crappy knee? It’s hard to ride around on a bum knee; it affects you mentally. Anyways, if that doesn’t happen, I will just be play riding and try to recuperate from last year and hit it hard in the springtime.

How did you get into racing, Shane?
I rode BMX when I was younger and just decided that I needed to go faster, so my dad bought me an XL80. We always went camping and riding in the bush and then we started doing cross-country and harescrambles. I’m kind of doing everything now; doing trials, riding some motocross, racing extreme events, and having fun!

What are some of your biggest accomplishments in racing?
The Last Man Standing was a good thing; I’ve won two silver medals at ISDE; I’ve won Alberta harescramble titles and this year I won the Canadian Off-Road Series; I also won a cross-country championship; and last year I placed 14th overall in the WEC after riding only two events.

Who would you like to thank for support this last year?
For Red Bull LMS, I definitely want to thanks Letko Cyclkes; A&E Racing / KTM Canada, Importations Thibault, Mitchell Rock Systems Inc., Rockstar, Pro-Grip, Kenda, Repsol, AFAM, Polisport, Ferodo, Fulmer, FASST Co., Lachapelle Racing Products, PG Canada, RXR, Sosa Racing, Quest Inspection, Bailey Electric, Feeding Performance, Cyclops, and Rekluse.