Mexican President Felipe Calderon inaugurated the new four-lane highway that links the southeastern states of Campeche and Merida with a bike ride on the road.

"I just finished the Maya Challenge Cycling Route to inaugurate the Campeche-Merida highway. We biked the 68 kilometers (42 miles) from the Campeche side," Calderon said in a Twitter posting.

"We did the cycling tour of Campeche on the Yucatan border in 2 hours and 29 minutes," Calderon said.

The goal of the project was to expand the Campeche-Merida highway to four lanes, the president said.

Calderon was accompanied on his tour by world-class athletes, including Hector Rangel, who competed in the London Summer Olympics, and Lorenza Morfin, a silver medalist in mountain biking at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2011 Guadalajara Games. EFE