On Saturday night, 41-year-old American cyclist Molly Shaffer Van Houweling broke the women鈥檚 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) hour record at the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico, . The California-based cyclist rode 28.6 miles in 60 minutes, a little more than one聽tenth of a mile farther than the previous record, which was set 12 years ago by Dutch rider Leontien Van Moorsel.
鈥淚 just feel really fortunate,鈥 Van Houweling told . 鈥淵ou never know if everything is going to come together on race day. You just have to control everything you can control. Everything seemed to come together today.鈥
Van Houweling has won five UCI Amateur Road World Championships and already held the U.S. women鈥檚 hour record with a distance of 28.4 miles, set in February, according to the UCI.