Alfredo Binda

Alfredo Binda was an Italian road cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s who became the first rider to win five editions of the Giro d'Italia, a record that stood for two decades.

Five Giro d'Italia titles between 1925 and 1933 — including editions in which he won nine consecutive stages and on another occasion took 12 of 15 stages — made Alfredo Binda so dominant that race organisers reportedly paid him to stay away in 1930 rather than allow him to extinguish public interest in the competition. He began racing in France before returning to Italy, and won his first Giro d'Italia as a 23-year-old debutant in 1925, dashing the hopes of the beloved veteran champion Costante Girardengo and sparking a bitter rivalry between the two that divided Italian cycling fans for years. Binda proved himself the dominant force in Italian cycling through the late 1920s, winning the Giro again in 1927, 1928, and 1929 — on one occasion taking 12 of 15 stages, on another winning nine consecutive stages. His dominance was so complete that in 1930 race organisers reportedly paid him a substantial sum not to enter the Giro, fearing his presence would kill public interest in the race. Rather than sulk, Binda used the year to win the first of three World Road Race Championship titles. Binda added a second and third World Championship in 1930 and 1932, the latter won in front of a patriotic crowd in Rome that finally embraced him as a national hero, and returned in 1933 to win a fifth and final Giro d'Italia title, a record that stood until Fausto Coppi matched it in 1953. Also a capable musician known for playing the trumpet after exhausting races, Binda retired from racing in the mid-1930s and went on to manage the Italian national team, memorably tasked with keeping peace between his two feuding successors, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.

Complete rider excelling as a climber and classics specialist with remarkable stage-winning consistency

Regarded as one of the greatest riders in cycling history, whose five Giro titles set a benchmark equalled only by Coppi and Merckx

• 5x Giro d'Italia winner (1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1933)
• 3x World Road Race Champion (1927, 1930, 1932)
• 2x Milan-San Remo winner
• 4x Giro di Lombardia winner