Cyclist shot while participating in Cache Creek 600 cycling event

Watch Above: Tanya Beja reports on the random shooting.

VANCOUVER – Police say a man is recovering in hospital after being shot while participating in a cycling event early Sunday morning.

Global News has identified the victim as 59-year-old Craig Premack from Burnaby. He is an avid cyclist and racer, who travels around the province with the BC Randonneurs Cycling Club, and was one of three-dozen cyclists taking part in the event this weekend.

Lytton RCMP say at about 1 a.m. they received a report that a cyclist had been shot on Highway 1 just south of Spences Bridge while participating in the Cache Creek 600.

Premack was hit in the forearm and suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries. He was taken to a local hospital and has since been released, but it is expected he will need more surgery on his arm.

Police say the incident does not appear to be targeted and that the suspect fled in a pickup truck. There is no description available at this time.

Cst. Kris Clark with the Southeast District RCMP says Premack had just passed the halfway point when he was shot. “Spences Bridge is a populated area, but this happened about three kilometres south,” says Clark.

Premack was alone, but was found a few minutes after the incident by two other cyclists also taking part in the event.

The investigation continues and police are looking to speak to anyone who has any information about what happened, the suspect or the pickup truck.

“We’ve established I think the ‘what, when and where,” says Clark. “The two remaining questions are ‘who’ and ‘why’.”

“We’re trying to understand why something like this would happen. By all intents and purposes this does appear to be a random act.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Lytton RCMP at 250-455-2225 or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

The Cache Creek 600 is an annual 600 km cycling event that starts in Maple Ridge on Saturday morning, goes to Cache Creek and ends in Maple Ridge on Sunday. The cyclists are expected back in the Lower Mainland Sunday evening.