[Words by Steve Thomas - Header image by Dave Mackison]

Stu Thomson has been racing bikes since he was 13 years old – mostly downhill mountain bikes back then. Following the emerging blazing trail that was being carved out by British racers, Stu made his way up through the rough-cut national ranks on the UK circuit. Soon after, he began chasing the World Cup dream, and the going was steady and in the right direction for him. That was until an ankle injury struck, which took a terrifying “twist for the worse.” His World Cup dream came to a crashing halt in a sea of pain, and yet with that came an unexpected opportunity – in the form of a camera. 

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From humble filmic beginnings, Stu took his flare on the bike and turned it into film-making magic. Over the years Stu and his thriving Scottish-based media content company, Cut Media, have evolved into one of the most respected top-draw agencies in the world. From legendary productions such as Danny McCaskill’s The Ridge and on to mainstream media projects with leading brands such as Red Bull and Nike, and into sports as far-reaching as Formula 1, Cut and its works have certainly made their mark.

These days Stu still rides and races all kinds of bikes, has even held Fastest Known Times  (FKTs) on such classic routes as the West Highland Way and has a deep and bike-passionate involvement with all things cycling, especially on the offroad side. We spoke to him about his rough and tumble ride over the years.

off.road.cc: Where was your career at and heading when you got injured, and how difficult was that to handle, especially with staying involved with the sport? 

Stu Thomson: It’s hard to say, but realistically I’d been a podium contender at UK level and a mid-pack World Cup racer, pushing the top 20. I had one World Cup podium, but it wasn’t a regular occurrence. In many ways the injury was a disaster and life-changing, it was essentially minor ankle ligament damage, and that became infected so I nearly lost my leg. I was left with a tiny amount of movement in my foot, but the truth is it was a gift. It made me change my focus, to pick up a camera and begin a journey that gave me so much more than racing.

ORCC: How did you set about starting Cut, and what were your aims in the beginning? 

ST: It literally just started with me going to local and national MTB races and filming my friends. I initially hosted videos on a website before changing to shooting for brands for their own website and channels. I didn’t have any grand plans other than being motivated by new and bigger challenges. I loved bigger creative challenges, and working with athletes to portray them in a credible way and in a sport I loved. But I was also fascinated by the challenge brands had in connecting with audiences and standing out in a crowded market.

ORCC: How did you find learning the technical and business side of filmmaking? 

ST: It was pretty steep I guess, but at the same time, when I look back I was never great technically. Working with athletes and building a vision/creative idea for the projects came easier to me, and I think they were more important. I ended up collaborating with some amazing people whose technical knowledge was far better than mine.

2025 stu thomson 4.jpg, by Liam Mercer

[Image by Danny Gym]
ORCC: How do you translate and action the athlete’s, brand’s and client’s ideas, and how much of the creative side is directly from you? 

ST: The creative side can come from all places; the athlete, the brand or from us. But I’ve always believed that the magic comes from developing that idea with a great team who all have the same goal of making the best work and delivering for the brand. 
There are so many of our best projects started as a one-liner or even a throw-away comment, but the journey that goes on from that moment until you hit record on a camera is what makes it truly great. Often it can evolve so much that it ends up nothing like that original idea. 

I’m still pretty involved and we’ve had a few projects this year where I’ve had the initial idea, but I tend to rail against the ‘who’s idea was that’ sentiment. The “gold” is when the athlete, the brand, and our team work together, and everyone knocks it out of the park together and celebrates each other's successes.

ORCC: You've established yourself as the best in the game, but stepping outside of the flat bar niche into the roadside, and now much further – how did you manage this? 

ST: It comes from two things; I love all types of bike riding these days and so it reflected my journey, but more importantly it came from a place of trying new things creatively and taking what we’ve learned and applying it to other sports. I love mountain biking, the people, and its culture, however, if we only focussed on creating projects in mountain biking we’d limit ourselves creatively and would have to churn out lots of work rather than making a handful of brilliant projects.

2025 stu thomson 1.jpg, by Liam Mercer

ORCC: How has your role changed over the years, and how hands-on are you now with the projects? 

ST: In terms of day-to-day tasks, it’s almost unrecognisable from where it started. I’ve gone from being a one-man filmmaker to running a creative agency of (currently) 14 people. I rarely shoot now, and don’t edit – there are people on our team way better at that than me. Back at the start I also created one video, now it’s campaigns across all different channels and often languages too. Yet the process of working up ideas and building out a vision that ends up in content that makes people smile/laugh/enjoy is still at the heart of it.

ORCC: What do you make of the huge viewing price hike and repackaging of cycling, and especially MTB, by WBD, and what do you think the impact will be in the UK?

ST: It’s hugely frustrating that the sport has become so inaccessible. I think, in particular, for the MTB fans, who have had the luxury of free-to-air on Red Bull it makes it harder to swallow. For me, I think there needs to be an appreciation that paywalls exist and more and more sport tends to be behind them, so, in that way, cycling is no exception. We’d all love it to be free for everyone to enjoy, but at the end of the day WBD are a commercial entity and they exist to make money; so if there is blame to be placed it is more with the UCI for allowing it to happen to this extent. For me the extent of the cost of the WBD approach in the UK is most particularly damaging for MTB – and especially downhill. 

2025 stu thomson 3.jpg, by Liam Mercer

While I don’t like having to pay to watch it, if you are a cycling fan you may feel there is value in it as you can watch everything from cyclo-cross to the spring classics and the Tour de France. There are a lot of events covered, and those sports have a big crossover audience so numbers are likely to remain high, and the teams/athletes still hold a significant commercial value. However (and I’m guessing to a certain extent here), most downhill fans don’t have any interest in the other cycling disciplines so it’s harder to justify the investment for just a handful of races. Therefore very few will be likely to pay the subscription which will reduce the audience significantly for an already niche sport, and so the commercial value of the team/athletes, and then in the long term the popularity/accessibility of the sport.

ORCC: With the WBA TV rights scenario, if a brand or team wanted you to produce something behind the scenes at a race where TV rights are held by another organisation – can you still go in and film or are there restrictions and hurdles there?

ST: There are hurdles, but to be fair that isn’t necessarily a new thing. Again, for this, I don’t really blame WBD. If I had invested in purchasing the rights and became the event promoter, it would be within my interest to make sure viewers pay/watch it on my platform to make a profit on that investment. The UCI should have a strategy not only to have a great broadcast partner but to make the sport accessible to everyone, too, and the WBD relationship doesn’t seem to consider that at all. On another note, MTB has such a heritage of brilliant, creative content coming out of the events, I just hope they can find a way for it to work in harmony with WBD.

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