The Rebels of The World

Alfonsina Strada { Cyclist }

Alfonsina Strada (16 March 1891 – 13 September 1959) was an Italian cyclist, the only woman to have ridden one of cycling's three major stage races.

Her racing career included an Italian record which lasted 26 years. She died aged 69 as she propped up her motorcycle after riding it to a bicycle race.

According to lore, Morini grew up a , playing with her brothers and their friends and riding her father's bicycle until she was 10 and her father bought her a bike in exchange for chickens. Romantic accounts say that villagers crossed themselves as she rode past, dressed and behaving more like a boy than a girl. Her mother is said to have pressed her to become a seamstress.

She rode her first race at about 13, winning a live pig. She won nearly all the girls' races she entered and many of the boys' events. Her reputation brought an invitation to ride the Grand Prix of in in 1909. She was such a success that the Tsarina ⋅wanted her husband, Tsar , to give her a gold medal.

She won 36 races against men and became the friend of riders such as . She raced at and Paris and twice rode the at a time when it was open to all. She finished 32nd and last in the 1917 race, an hour and 34 minutes behind the Belgian . She completed the 204 km course in 8h 32m. She rode again in 1918 and finished 21st, ahead of several men.


In 1915, when 24, Morini married Luigi Strada, a metal plater and engraver, who was also a rider and racer. He gave her a new racing bike with as a present. The couple moved to , where Alfonsina rode on the as Luigi acted as her trainer.

Strada entered as "Strada, Alfonsin." The absence of a final "o" or "a" to her first name hid her gender. She was accepted as number 72 and, assuming her to be a man, journalists began writing of Alfonsino. The truth emerged the day before the start and by then it was too late.

She came 74th on the first day, an hour behind the leader but not badly by the standard of the day, when riders could be separated by hours. She finished 50th of 65 between and and survived as far as Naples. Then the weather turned. A gale blew, rain poured, mud and rocks swept across the road. Strada was among many who crashed. Her handlebar snapped and she stood by the roadside until a peasant snapped a broomstick to jam in the hole. She rode on with one side of her bar of steel and the other made from a broomstick but finished outside the time limit.

The race referees excluded her because she was out of time. The organiser, Colombo, couldn't stop them from applying his own rules but by then spectators were waiting to see her and her rides were producing stories for his reporters. Some reports say that Colombo had to balance sentiment, commercial benefit, the political climate and 's intolerance of her challenge to machismo. Colombo let her ride on as an individual, paying her bills but excluding her from prizes.

The next day was to , where a crowd lifted her from her bicycle and carried her in triumph when she finished in tears from pain and exhaustion 25 minutes after the time limit. It motivated her to continue to Milan. Only 38 completed the race and Strada, although no longer formally in the running, finished more than 20 hours ahead of , the . She finished 28 hours behind the winner, 30-year-old of . However, almost an hour separated Enrici from his runner-up, , so it was hardly a close-run race. With two riders finishing behind her, Strada won 50,000 for her efforts.

Luigi Strada died in 1946. In 1950 Strada married Carlo Messori, a retired racing cyclist, and they opened a bicycle shop on the Via Varesina in Milan. He started to write her biography but he died in 1957 before it was completed and she closed the shop.

She lived alone in Milan for her last years, riding to her shop every day until cycling grew too tiring. She sold some of her medals and trophies and bought a scarlet 500cc motorbike. In September 1959 she rode this to the professional race. The motorbike fell off its stand when she got home. The weight was too much for her and she had a heart attack as she and the Moto Guzzi fell to the ground. She was dead by the time she reached hospital.


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