The cyclist randomly shot during an endurance road race last month said thought he would die as he lay bleeding on the side of the highway.

Craig Premack was on Highway 1 south of Spences Bridge riding overnight when he was struck in the arm by a bullet, just below his elbow.

He was one of 36 participants in the two-day, 600-kilometre Cache Creek 600 cycling event and had just gotten back on the road after taking a nap.

“I was surprised by explosions next to me. At first I thought they were firecrackers but then my right forearm just blew up,” he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday appealing for information about his attackers.

Premack, who saw a dark-coloured pickup truck speed from the scene, ripped his pants into a makeshift tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

“I thought I could die. I thought I could just bleed to death on the side of the road,” he said.

After what he describes as the longest 20 minutes of his life, two cyclists found the injured rider and summoned help.

He was transferred to Vancouver, where he underwent surgery on his elbow.

The avid rider said the impact of the bullet shattered bone fragments, and his arm is so badly damaged he’s unable to return to work.

RCMP Insp. Ed Boettcher said the incident appears to be completely random, and investigators still don’t have a motive.

“It was a brazen unprovoked potentially deadly attack and we’re very fortunate today talking about a shooting not a homicide,” he said.

Investigators are hoping to speak with two men who were seen in a dark-coloured pickup truck earlier in the race throwing objects at cyclists as they drove past.

Police say there’s nothing to indicate they have anything to do with the shooting, but want them to be ruled out as suspects.