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.

[2][3] 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.

Romantic accounts say that villagers crossed themselves as she rode past, dressed and behaving more like a boy than a girl.

She was such a success that the Tsarina Alexandra⋅wanted her husband, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to give her a gold medal.

Strada's ride in the Giro d'Italia came about through a disagreement between the organiser, Emilio Colombo of Gazzetta dello Sport, and the top riders of the day.

Radio Marconi said The Foggia-L'Aquila – 7th stage was 304 km, which was bad enough because the southern Italian roads at this time were nearly impassable.

The mountain pass was so terrible that the riders could not get their bikes through the mire and mess on their own and almost all the participants were towed part way by motorcycles and cars.

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 Italian fascism's intolerance of her challenge to machismo.

The next day was to Fiume, 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.

[2] Only 38 completed the race and Strada, although no longer formally in the running, finished more than 20 hours ahead of Telesforo Benaglia, the maglia nera.

[2] She rode exhibition races throughout Italy, Spain, France, Luxembourg and before Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in Saint Petersburg.

[2] In 1938 she set the female world record for the hour, covering 32.58 km at Longchamp, Paris, a record beaten in 1955 by Tamara Novikova of the Soviet Union[1] The Italian writer Dino Buzzati wrote that, as a boy riding in a park in Milan, he saw Strada and managed to stay with her for two laps before "exploding".

In 1950 Strada married Carlo Messori, a retired racing cyclist, and they opened a bicycle shop on Via Varesina in Milan.

[2] She lived alone in Milan for her last years, riding to her shop every day until cycling grew too tiring.

Her bicycle is among the collection at the Madonna del Ghisallo chapel close to Lake Como in Italy.