The BC Sports Hall of Fame has inducted the new members from its class of 2025, and along with soccer great Christine Sinclair and BC Hockey icon Ray Ferraro, was a world class mountain biker who grew up in Maple Ridge.
Cindy Devine is part of a prestigious class that also included broadcaster Jim Hughson in the Media category, and the 2000 BC Lions in the Team category.
“Of course I’m humbled and honoured,” said Devine when she was informed of her induction last year.
She was already inducted into the World Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2003, as one of Canada’s great early mountain bikers, and the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame in 2021.
Devine was a five-time, undefeated Canadian national downhill mountain bike champion from 1990 to 1994, and competed on the world stage.
She won the first-ever official UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) world downhill mountain bike championship in 1990 in Colorado. Only two Canadian women have ever won it.
She took world championship bronze medals in 1991 in Italy, and again in 1992 in Quebec.
Other big wins include the Dodge ‘Desert to Sea’ 150-mile mountain bike race from Palm Springs to San Diego in 1989, and she was a three-time champion of the Mammoth Kamikaze downhill race in Mammoth Lakes, California, 1989-91.
Devine was born in Venezuela, and her family moved to North Vancouver, and then to the Ruskin area. They lived in an Airstream trailer while her father built a log cabin in the rural area of Maple Ridge. She spent her high school years at Garibaldi secondary.
Devine took long road trips on her bike as a teen, riding to beaches in Vancouver and building up endurance.
In university, she took longer cycling tours, with the first taking her from Prince Rupert and back. Over the next few years, she tackled tours in Fiji, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand, where she lived for three years.
She graduated in 1977, and was named a Maple Ridge Hometown Hero at a banquet in 2017.
Devine has lived in the Kootenays for more than 30 years, and still bikes a lot, using an early E-bike, which has a small engine and still demands a lot of pedal power.
“We’re honoured to be telling the stories and marking the outstanding achievements of our Class of 2025,” said Tom Mayenknecht, chair of the BC Sports Hall of Fame. “Honouring the past – and inspiring the future – is at the very heart of the mission of the BC Sports Hall of Fame, and this year’s honourees truly exemplify the best of sport in this province and beyond.”
Since 1966, the BC Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 462 individuals and 71 teams to its Hall of Champions, ensuring their legacies will continue to inspire future generations.