St Albans' Shusanah Pillinger has become the first solo British woman to complete the Race Across America.

The 39-year-old completed the 3,004 mile cycle from California to Maryland in 12 days, nine hours and 14 minutes.

The ultra-cyclist's attempt last year was brought to an end when she broke her collarbone after falling asleep. Pillinger managed to competed the race this time despite suffering from hallucinations due to a lack of sleep.

Pillinger told BBC Sport: "It's been something I've been trying to do for some time. The goal coming into this was to finish, purely because I have a nice big piece of metal in my arm and six screws from last year's attempt.

"Some people said I shouldn't have been on the start line so quickly, but this arm has been perfect."

Pillinger added: "Unfortunately I have a habit of falling asleep on the bike and I fell asleep on the bike many times from half way.

"We were doing 70 minutes (of sleep) per day plus some 25-minute naps to reset and some longer sleeps to reset which were spread through the race."

The Race Across America was first run in 1982 and is open to solo riders and relay teams. This year's race started in Oceanside, California and finished in Annapolis, Maryland.