A cyclist who was shot multiple times by an unknown gunman while riding on a popular trail in Victoria's north last year remembers pleading with the shooter, asking him "why are you doing this to me?''.

Speaking one year after the shooting, Kelvin Tennant said he was shocked when a man got out of his car and started shooting at him about 12pm on Saturday, February 18.

He had been riding along the Myrtleford-Everton Rail Trail.

''I remember going down and thinking 'this is it, I'm finished,'' he recalled.

But before he passed out, the retired schoolteacher said he deliberately exhaled loudly and then played dead so that the shooter would not shoot him yet again.