Alfonsina Strada - Early Life

Early Life

Born Alfonsina Morini at Castelfranco Emilia, near Modena, she was the daughter of a peasant family. Her father was a day labourer, her mother a wet nurse. Her living conditions as a child may have been romanticised by reporters and not denied as her legend grew. One account says her house was a windowless shack through which chickens ran; another says she was one of 24 living there. Further reports speak of her family considering her passion for cycling to have been the work of the devil, that it had the evil eye. Some reports say that she was one of eight children and others that she was one of 10, with eight brothers, still others that she had 10 brothers.

Much of Morini's early life should be read with this in mind.

The legend says that Morini grew up a tomboy, playing with her brothers and their friends and riding her father's bicycle until, when she was 10, her father paid for one of her own by exchanging it 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 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.