Alfonsina Strada

Alfonsina Strada

Alfonsina Strada
To person
Full name	Alfonsina Morini Strada
Nickname	Il diavolo in gonnella
Date of birth	March 16, 1891
date of death	September 13, 1959
nation	Italy
discipline	Rail and road
Most important successes
36 victories in 1938: World hour record for women - 32.58 kilometers

Alfonsina Strada (born March 16, 1891 in Castelfranco Emilia , † September 13, 1959 in Milan ) was an Italian cyclist. She was the only woman to ever take part in one of the three great tours for men: in 1924 she started at the Giro d'Italia because the organizers believed she was a man. Her cycling career lasted 26 years.

Early years

Alfonsina Morini came from a poor farming family: her father was a day laborer , her mother a wet nurse . When she became famous, numerous anecdotes and stories were told about her childhood, the veracity of which is controversial. The information about the number of her siblings varies between eight and ten, most of whom are said to have been brothers. Alfonsina Morini is said to have grown up like a boy who played with her brothers and their friends. At first she rode her father's bicycle until he was ten years old when he bought her his own in exchange for chickens. As her enthusiasm for cycling grew, the family tried to dissuade her and her mother forced her to become a seamstress.

Cycling career

At the age of 13, Morini drove her first race and won a live pig. She won almost all girls 'and many boys' races. As a result, she was invited to the St. Petersburg Grand Prix in 1909 . Her start there was such a success that Tsarina Alexandra persuaded her husband Tsar Nikolaus to present her with a gold medal. In 1911 she went to Moncalieri and set an hour record over 37.192 kilometers. It is unclear whether this was a record for women or even for men, or just a regional one.

At the age of 24, Morini married the cyclist and engraver Luigi Strada. Her family hoped that she would now lead a “normal” life, but her husband gave her a new bike for the wedding and looked after her from then on. The young couple moved to Milan , where Alfonsina Strada trained under the guidance of her husband on the local cycle track .

Alfonsina Morini won 36 races against men and earned appreciation and respect from the male drivers and journalists. She drove races in Bologna and Paris , started twice in the Giro di Lombardia when the starting field was open to everyone. In 1917 she finished 32nd and last, an hour and 34 minutes behind Belgian winner Philippe Thys , with a total time of eight hours and 32 minutes for 204 kilometers. In 1918 she drove the race a second time and finished 21st, ahead of several male racing drivers. She was nicknamed Il diavolo in gonnella ( Devil in the skirt ).

Giro d'Italia 1924

The fact that Alfonsina Strada was able to compete in the Giro in 1924 was based on a dispute between the organizer Emilio Colombo from Gazzetta dello Sport and the top drivers at the time who refused to drive. Colombo then made places available for anyone who wanted to start. The newspaper promised to pay their bills, accommodation and meals. 600 chickens, 750 kilograms of meat, 4800 bananas and 720 eggs were promised for the 90 places, but no trainers, masseurs, mechanics or escort vehicles.

Strada registered as Strada, Alfonsin and received the starting number 72. The press wrote out her name as Alfonsino . The truth came out before the start, but they were allowed to ride anyway. On the first stage from Milan to Genoa (300 km) she finished 74th, an hour after the leader, which was not unusual at the time because of the long stages. On the stage from Genoa to Florence (307.9 km) she was 56th out of 65. Then the weather changed, it rained heavily, and the streets were littered with mud and fallen stones; Strada, like many others, fell frequently. When her handlebar broke on the eighth stage from L'Aquila to Perugia (296 km), she replaced one half with a broom that a farmer had given her. So she reached the goal, but exceeded the time limit. Therefore she was initially excluded from the race; but since it attracted the public and the journalists wrote about it, the organizer Colombo let it go on. However, she now had to pay her bills herself and no longer received any prizes. After the tenth stage from Bologna to Fiume , a crowd lifted her from her bike and carried her after she had finished the stage in tears due to pain and exhaustion and exceeded the time limit by 25 minutes. This enthusiastic reception motivated them to continue to their destination in Milan. Only 38 drivers finished this Giro. Although Strada officially no longer competed in the race, she was 20 hours faster than the official last, Telesforo Benaglia , and 28 hours slower than the winner Giuseppe Enrici . It won 50,000 lire .

Later career

Alfonsina Strada was never allowed to start at the Giro again. In the following years she drove show races in Italy, Spain, France and Luxembourg. In France she beat the French sprint champion, Eliane Robin . In 1938 she set a world hour record for women over 32.58 kilometers in Longchamp , a record that lasted until 1955, when it was improved to 38.473 kilometers by Tamara Nowikowa.

After the cycling career

Alfonsina Strada's husband Luigi died in 1950. All the money Alfonsina earned was used up for his care in a hospital. Four years later she married Carlo Messori, a former cyclist with whom she had been friends since she was young. The couple opened a bicycle shop in Milan. Messori began writing a biography of his wife, but he died in 1957 before finishing this one. Other sources say the book was so full of admiration for Alfonsina Strada that publishers turned it down. After his death in 1957, Strada sold some of her medals and trophies to buy a motorcycle, a 500cc Moto Guzzi . In September 1959 she rode her motorcycle to the Tre Valli Varesine race . When she got home, she crashed while jacking up the motorcycle and suffered a fatal heart attack.

memories

Alfonsina Strada's bike is in the Museo del Ciclismo Madonna del Ghisallo on Lake Como .

The Italian playwright Eugenio Sidori wrote the one-person play Finisce per A in 2009 . In 2010 the Italian music group Têtes de bois released the song Alfonsina e la bici . In the accompanying video clip , Strada is portrayed by astrophysicist Margherita Hack .

literature

• Paolo Facchinetti: Gli anni ruggenti di Alfonsina Strada. Ediciclo Editore, Portogruaro 2004, ISBN 88-88829-03-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paolo Facchinetti: Gli anni ruggenti di Alfonsina Strada. Pp. 77-80
2. ^ Library of Italy - Overview of Paolo Facchinetti's book
3. ↑ Just Another Year: 1924 (Part 4) on cyclismas.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  
4. ↑ BiciVeneto - History of the Giro - Alfonsina Strada
5. ↑ eugeniosideri.com ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Alfonsina e la bici on youtube.com

Web links

Commons : Alfonsina Morini  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Alfonsina Morini Strada. The Woman Who Rode the 1924 Giro on bikeraceinfo.com (English)
• L'emancipazione femminile sui pedali: Alfonsina Strada on amicidellabicifo.org (Italian)
• Dante Alighieri Society of Washington - Profile of Alfonsina Strada, PDF (English)
• Alfonsina Strada on lepetitbraquet.fr (French)