Alfredo Binda

Alfredo Binda

Personal information
Born	(1902-08-11)11 August 1902 Cittiglio, Italy
Died	19 July 1986(1986-07-19) (aged 83) Cittiglio, Italy
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber, classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1922	Nice Sport
1923–1924	La Française
1925–1927	Legnano
1928	Legnano/Mifa
1929–1936	Legnano
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 2 individual stages (1930) Giro d'Italia General Classification (1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1933) Mountains Classification (1933) 41 individual stages (1925–1933) One-day races and Classics World Road Race Championship (1927, 1930, 1932) National Road Race Championship (1926, 1927, 1928, 1929) Milan–San Remo (1929, 1931) Giro di Lombardia (1925, 1926, 1927, 1931) Giro del Piemonte (1926, 1927)
Medal record Representing  Italy Road bicycle racing World Championships 1927 Nürburgring Road race, elite 1929 Zürich Road race, elite 1930 Liège Road race, elite 1932 Rome Road race, elite

Alfredo Binda (11 August 1902 – 19 July 1986)^[1][2] was an Italian cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s. He was the first to win five editions of the Giro d'Italia, and a three-time world champion. In addition he won Milan–San Remo twice, and the Tour of Lombardy four times.

Later he would manage the Italian National team. Under him, Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali and Gastone Nencini all triumphed at the Tour de France.

Early life

Binda was born in Cittiglio near Varese but moved to Nice, in southern France as a teenager. He found work with his uncle as an apprentice plasterer, but he and brother Primo spent their free time cycling. He began racing in September 1921, aged 19. He won his first race (though he was subsequently disqualified) and it was clear from the outset that he was immensely gifted as both time trialist and climber.

Binda was a trained trumpet player, and was nicknamed "Trombettiere di Cittiglio" ("The Trumpeter of Cittiglio").^[3]

Cycling career

Enticed by a 500 lire King of the Mountains prize on the Ghisallo climb, Binda rode from Nice to Milan in order to compete in the 1924 Tour of Lombardy. He won the prize, finished fourth in the race, and was immediately offered a contract with the Legnano professional team.

The 1925 Giro d'Italia was to be the last of the legendary campionissimo Costante Girardengo. All of Italy hoped he would prevail, and his defeat at the hands of Binda, a 23-year-old Giro debutant, was deeply unpopular. In the event Girardengo resolved to continue racing, and the two of them developed a caustic, deeply personal rivalry. As Girardengo's powers waned, Italians looked to Domenico Piemontesi to usurp Binda but, much like everyone else, he was hopelessly out of his depth against the fuoriclasse.

In 1929 Girardengo "discovered" a prodigiously strong track rider from Veneto, Learco Guerra. He famously anointed him as his heir apparent, a new "anti-Binda". Guerra closely resembled Girardengo as a cyclist, and was hugely popular. He enjoyed the support of the Italian Fascist Party, and by extension the press and wider sporting public. Binda, on the other hand, famously declared that he'd no interest in producing spettacolo. Rather he was simply in the business of winning bike races, and each time he defeated Guerra the Italian public's antipathy grew. Whilst Guerra was homespun, expansive and open, Binda was perceived as cold and detached, pompous even.

So dominant was he that the Gazzetta dello Sport offered him 22,500 lire to miss the Giro of 1930. Instead, he took part in that year's Tour de France, winning two stages. Not until 1932, when he won a third Cycling World Championship in Rome, did the public start to warm to him. By then he had redefined both training and racing methodology, and was inarguably the greatest cyclist ever to have lived.

All told he won the Giro a record five times in 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1933 (1933 was also the first year the Giro held a "King of the Mountains" competition, which Binda won too). Besides the overall victories he won 41 stages (a record only broken in 2003 by Mario Cipollini). In 1927, he won 12 out of 15 stages, and in 1929 he won 8 consecutive stages.

In the World Championships, Binda was also very successful. He won the title three times in 1927, 1930 and 1932 (a record later equalled by Rik Van Steenbergen, Eddy Merckx and Óscar Freire). In addition, he placed third in 1929. By the time he retired he had won over 120 races, including the Italian Championships four times.

Società Ciclistica Alfredo Binda is named in his honor.^[4]

Binda at the 1927 Giro d'Italia

Major results

Source:^[5]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alfredo Binda.

• Complete Palmarès
• Alfredo Binda: The Giro's first superstar
• Alfredo Binda Cycling Team
• Alfredo Binda profile at Cycling Archives
• Alfredo Binda at CycleToscana.com

UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race
1927: Binda 1928–29: Ronsse 1930: Binda 1931: Guerra 1932: Binda 1933: Speicher 1934: Kaers 1935: Aerts 1936: Magne 1937: Meulenberg 1938: Kint 1946: Knecht 1947: Middelkamp 1948: Schotte 1949: Van Steenbergen 1950: Schotte 1951: Kübler 1952: Müller 1953: Coppi 1954: Bobet 1955: Ockers 1956–57: Van Steenbergen 1958: Baldini 1959: Darrigade 1960–61: Van Looy 1962: Stablinski 1963: Beheyt 1964: Janssen 1965: Simpson 1966: Altig 1967: Merckx 1968: Adorni 1969: Ottenbros 1970: Monseré 1971: Merckx 1972: Basso 1973: Gimondi 1974: Merckx 1975: Kuiper 1976: Maertens 1977: Moser 1978: Knetemann 1979: Raas 1980: Hinault 1981: Maertens 1982: Saronni 1983: LeMond 1984: Criquielion 1985: Zoetemelk 1986: Argentin 1987: Roche 1988: Fondriest 1989: LeMond 1990: Dhaenens 1991–92: Bugno 1993: Armstrong 1994: Leblanc 1995: Olano 1996: Museeuw 1997: Brochard 1998: Camenzind 1999: Freire 2000: Vainšteins 2001: Freire 2002: Cipollini 2003: Astarloa 2004: Freire 2005: Boonen 2006–07: Bettini 2008: Ballan 2009: Evans 2010: Hushovd 2011: Cavendish 2012: Gilbert 2013: Costa 2014: Kwiatkowski 2015–16: Sagan