Audrey McElmury won in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1969, having fallen and remounted her bike.
16 Facts About Audrey McElmury
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Audrey McElmury grew up in La Jolla, California, where her first sport was horse jumping, followed by surfing.
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Audrey McElmury began cycling after breaking her leg after falling from a skate board in 1960.
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Audrey McElmury won the Californian cycling championship in 1964, riding on velodromes because there was no other racing for women.
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Audrey McElmury trained with men on the road, getting up at 4.30am for the first of two daily rides.
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Audrey McElmury won the national pursuit title and the first national road championship in 1966.
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Audrey McElmury was picked again for the championship in Czechoslovakia the following year.
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Audrey McElmury regained the field on the last lap and then went clear again on the hill.
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Audrey McElmury finished 1m 10s ahead of a British rider, Bernadette Swinnerton.
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Audrey McElmury's victory was so unexpected that the award ceremony was delayed half an hour while officials searched for a recording of the American national anthem.
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Audrey McElmury set the national hour record, 24.8 miles at the Encino velodrome in California and held it from 1969 to 1990.
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Audrey McElmury retired from cycling after a crash in 1974 and took up running.
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Audrey McElmury married two cyclists, first Scott Audrey McElmury whom she met in 1958, when she was 15, and, in 1971, former Pan Am team member and multiple title champion Michael Levonas.
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Audrey McElmury obtained a degree in zoology from the University of California in San Diego and had a son, Ian, born in 1967.
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Toward the end of her cycling career, McElmury and Levonas obtained business degrees at the University of Denver in hotel and restaurant management, Audrey graduating number one in her class.
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Audrey McElmury was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1989.