Since the Cicliste per Caso project was born, Alfonsina Strada has always been our inspiration. Crazy Alfonina, the only woman who raced the men’s Giro d’Italia in 1924.
A strong woman who managed to overcome both her desperate family situation and all the prejudices of society to chase her dreams. Without knowing it, she has become a symbol of women empowerment. For this reason we wanted to pay her a tribute, and symbolically retraced the Giro d’Italia of 1924, to focus attention on women’s rights.
Our Giro for Alfonsina was made in two stages: the first from Milano to Catania in 2016, the second from Bari to Milano in 2019. In total we cycled 3.036 km with 24.770 m ascent. During both trips we met people and organized free events to talk about women empowerment through art, cinema, music, teather, sport… We went in search of the women who are changing Italy, today’s Alfonsinas!
These stories and these trips, together with the one in Sardinia, have also become a book: “Cicliste per caso, l’Italia in bici sulle tracce di Alfonsina Strada” (Edicilo), which you can find in all italian bookstores and also online, but unfortunately for the moment it’s only in italian.
«Expand time, slow it down, stay in it. Perhaps this is the meaning, for us, of a bicycle journey. Still be that little girl who learned to ride without wheels; be Alfonsina that first time she felt the mistress of the world with the wind in her face; be every little girl in the world at the exact moment she finds the courage to get out of the saddle and sprint as fast as the wind, faster than the sirocco, faster than the mistral ».
