Alfredo Binda

Alfredo Binda (August 11, 1902 – July 19, 1986), Italian cyclist, nicknamed La Gioconda for his elegance and permanent smile. Winner of the Giro d'Italia five times (1925, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1933) and three times of the World Championship (1927, 1930 and 1932), he is considered the first great rider in the history of cycling.

After retirement, he led the Italian National Cycling Team. Under his command, Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali and Gastone Nencini managed to win the Tour de France.

Early Years

Although she was born in Cittiglio (near Varese), Binda grew up in Nice, in the south of France. He was the son of Maffeo Binda (construction businessman), the tenth of fourteen children.He found work with his uncle as a plasterer's apprentice, while he spent all his free time riding a bicycle with his brother's cousin. he. He started racing in September 1921; at 19 he won his first race (although he was later disqualified). It was clear from the start that he was immensely gifted as a roller and climber, an area in which he especially excelled.

Cycling Race

He turned professional in 1922. Lured by the 500 lire prize for the best climber to climb Ghisallo, Binda rode from Nice to Milan in order to compete in the 1924 Giro di Lombardy. He won the prize, finished fourth in the race, and was immediately offered a contract with the professional team Legnano.

After getting some victories, his consecration came in 1925 by winning the Giro d'Italia and the Giro de Lombardy. In both races he dominated in the following years. He won the Giro in the years 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1933 and the Giro de Lombardy in 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1931.

Alfredo Binda in 1924

Their first great triumph, the 1925 Giro d'Italia, was the beginning of a bitter rivalry. It was assumed that it would be the last lap of the legendary career of the campionissimo Costante Girardengo, and everyone in Italy expected victory from him. His defeat at the hands of Binda, a 23-year-old Giro rookie, was deeply unpopular. The fact is that Girardengo, wounded in his pride, decided to continue competing, developing a caustic rivalry between the two, even beyond the personal. With Girardengo already on the wane, the Italians unsuccessfully relied on Domenico Piemontesi to beat the likes of Binda, who was hopelessly out of his reach.

In 1929 Girardengo "discovered" to a prodigiously strong Venetian cyclist hailing from the velodromes, Learco Guerra, and anointed him as his heir, the new 'anti-Binda'. Guerra was a lot like Girardengo as a cyclist, and he was very popular. He had the support of the Italian Fascist Party, and by extension, of the press and the general public. Binda, on the other hand, made a famous statement, in which he stated that & # 34; I have no interest in putting on a show. Rather, my business is simply winning bike races". Every time he defeated Guerra, the antipathy of the Italian public grew. While Guerra was an affable, expansive and open man, Binda was perceived as cold and aloof, always pompous.

His dominance in the Giro was overwhelming: in addition to his five total victories, he won 41 stages, a record he held until 2003 when it was broken by Mario Cipollini. In 1927, he won 12 of the 15 stages, and in 1929 he won 8 consecutive stages. He exercised such dominance that the organization (Gazzetta dello Sport) paid him 22,500 liras corresponding to what he would have received for winning the general classification and several stages, had he participated in the 1930 Giro and thus, recover the emotion of the test without his presence, instead, he took part that year in the Tour de France, winning two stages.

He was the winner of the first edition of the Cycling World Championship. He won the title three times: in 1927, 1930 and 1932, a record later equaled by Belgium's Rik Van Steenbergen, Eddy Merckx, Spain's Óscar Freire and Slovakia's Peter Sagan. In addition, he came third in 1929. Binda's other victories include the Italian championships (four times) and Milan-San Remo (twice).

It wasn't until 1932, when he won his third Cycling World Championship in Rome, that the public began to appreciate him. By then, Binda had so redefined the methodology of training and racing that he became indisputably the best cyclist in history up to that point. For many Italian commentators, he was the best and most complete cyclist until the appearance of Fausto Coppi.

Acknowledgments and Honors

• The Italian superlative "campionissimo"Champions champion), was used to successively qualify Costante Girardengo, Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, and will not be used again for any other champion after the death of the latter.
• Trophy Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio. Female cyclist race created in his honor in 1974, integrated in the Women's World Cup.
• La Società Ciclistica Alfredo Binda Varese received this name in his honor.
• Alfredo Binda Museum in Cittiglio, hometown, opened since 1986.
• He was appointed as one of the most outstanding cyclists in history when he was elected in 2002 to be part of the Inaugural Session of the ICU Hall of Fame.

Honours of Prizes

Results

During his racing career he achieved the following places in Grand Tours and one-day races.

Grand Tours

Classics, Championships and JJ. oh.

Race		1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936
	Milan San Remo	-	-	-	-	Ab.	2.	2.	1.o	Ab.	1.o	2.	6.o	46.	Ab.	Ab
	Paris-Roubaix	-	-	-	7.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Giro de Lombardy	-	-	4.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	DQ.	-	2.	1.o	-	-	-	-	-
World on Route		X	X	X	X	X	1.o	Ab.	3.o	1.o	6.o	1.o	6.o	-	-	-
Italy on Route		-	-	-	2.	1.o	1.o	1.o	1.o	2.	11.	3.o	5.o	-	56.o	-

—: Does not participate
Ab.: Abandon
X: Editions not held
DQ: Disqualified

External references

• Full Palmarés
• Alfredo Binda: The Giro's first superstar
• Alfredo Binda Cycling Team
• Cyclingarchives.com (English). Full Palmarés and photographs.
• Alfredo Binda at CycleToscana.com