Vittoria Bussi breaks Evelyn Stevens’s hour record
Vittoria Bussi becomes the first woman to surpass the 48-kilometer mark, beating the world record set by Evelyn Stevens in 2016.
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Italian Vittoria Bussi set a new world hour record Thursday in Aguascalientes, Mexico, riding 48.007 kilometers on the high-altitude velodrome.
Her performance bested the 47.980-kilometer mark set by American Evelyn Stevens in February 2016 on the track in Colorado Springs.
For the first 15 minutes, she rode a consistent pace of 18.7 seconds per lap on the 250-meter track, according to Molly van Houweling, a former hour record holder, who was at the track.
By the halfway point, the 30-year-old was slightly ahead of schedule.
Bussi closed hard in the final 15 minutes and went past the 48-kilometer mark, the only woman to do so since the UCI changed its hour record rules in 2014.
Remarkably, she had attempted the hour the day before but abandoned after 40 minutes when she was off the pace. The weather was cooler that day, which is not favorable for a fast ride.
A resident of Torino, Italy, Bussi has a PhD in Mathematics from Oxford University and also made an hour record attempt in October 2017, also in Mexico. On that day she rode 47.576 kilometers.
