Tag: Dino Buzzati

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Cycling and Music, Cinema, Art Hors Catégorie

Quote of the day from Dino Buzzati

Dino Buzzati

Quote of the day, from Dino Buzzati. Buzzati was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter, and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere Della Sera. He was also a cycling enthusiast.

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Cycling and Music, Cinema, Art Giro d'Italia History and Legends Races

Alfonsina Strada [the woman who rode the 1924 Giro d’Italia]

Alfonsina Strada
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 St Petersburg in Russia in 1909. She was such a success that the Czarina Alexandra⋅wanted her husband, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to give her a gold medal. In 1911 she went to Moncalieri, now in the southern suburbs of Turin, and set an hour record of 37.192 km. The status of the record is uncertain. It appears to have stood since 1905 but some reports say that Morini wasn't credited with her distance because her ride had been considered unladylike. Since that wouldn't have been an issue had she improved simply the women's record, there's a suggestion that she may also have broken a male record, perhaps a regional one, and it was that which she was denied. Her distance stood for 26 years. She won 36 races against men and became the friend of riders such as Costante Girardengo. She raced at Bologna and Paris and twice rode the Giro di Lombardia 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 Philippe Thys. She completed the 204 km course in 8h 32m. She rode again in 1918 and finished 21st, ahead of several men. She rode 1924 Giro d'Italia, and still remains the only woman who finished a grand tour.

1924 Giro d’Italia was very extraordinary. Because, Alfonsina Strada participated in that year’s Giro d’Italia, and became the only woman to have ridden one of cycling’s three 3-week grand tours.

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