The world champion pursuiter smiles through a tense jaw, shrugs her shoulders and says "it will always hurt".
There is nothing she can do about it, of course. Shanks will not get to ride for gold in the individual pursuit at the London Games later this year and will have to be content contesting the team pursuit instead.
And what a shame. Based on her current form, the 29-year-old would have started as one of the favourites.
Shanks returned yesterday from the world championships in Melbourne with a second rainbow jersey and accompanying gold medal, having dominated the final of the 3000m women's individual pursuit against a familiar adversary in Wendy Houvenaghel, of Great Britain.
A small group of family and friends assembled at Dunedin International Airport to welcome her back. Her grandmother, Madelene Barkman, had a lovely bunch of "golden flowers for the golden girl".
Shanks set a personal best in qualifying with a scorching time of 3min 27.268sec and took control of the final from the second lap, winning in 3min 30.199sec, more than 2sec ahead of Houvenaghel.
It was a remarkable ride considering Shanks has been concentrating on the team event.
And the win felt "even better" than the first world title she won in Poland in 2009.
"You know what it is like the second time around and that makes you hungrier," she said.
Despite focusing on the team event in the build-up for the world championships, Shanks said she felt good about her form.
But she rode last during qualifying and became increasingly nervous as some really quick times were posted.
"With so many fast times in qualifying I just thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to ride a personal best just to qualify for the final."
And on a fast track that is exactly what she did. The final was more of a "cat and mouse" affair, against an opponent, rather than the clock.
"In saying that, I couldn't see her, so that is why, for the first half of the race, we really go out and race to a schedule. That way you can control the race and know what is going on and then the second half is where you race her."
Shanks said the win was made "special" with members of her family and about "400 Kiwis in the crowd" there to cheer her on.
The team event did not go quite as well. New Zealand was pipped in the bronze medal ride by Canada and the eventual winner Great Britain and beaten finalist Australia were about 4sec quicker than the New Zealand trio.
It is a lot of time to make up before the Olympics but Shanks' coach and partner Craig Palmer believes the team still has plenty of room for improvement and can bridge the gap.
"There are a few technical things and small holes in the performance which can work on in the coming months. But there is definitely more time to be gained," he said.
"It is not like the girls are tapped out and that is as quick as we can get and the gap will stay the same. Come the Olympics anything is possible."
The New Zealand team will have a "short break" before reassembling and heading to the United States and France to complete Olympic preparations.
