STUDENTS from Southampton University have come third in a world challenge race for solar cycles held in Australia.
The SunSurfer bike, developed by nine engineering graduates, completed the gruelling 1,434km route from Alice Springs to Adelaide in a time of 35 hours, 30 minutes.
It achieved an average speed of 40.4km per hour, beating teams from as far afield as Malaysia, Russia, South Africa and the United States.
Of the 21 cycles which took part, only seven completed the entire course. A team from Australia came first.
Dr Alan Chambers and Dr Tom Markvart, who supervised the Southampton team, said they were delighted with the performance.
Dr Chambers said: "The bike was only completed two weeks before shipping and it went out largely untested."
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