the 1923 giro d'italia was dominated by costante girardengo, who won eight out of the ten race's stages. despite the large number of stage victories, girardengo's margin of victory was thirty-seven seconds over the second-place finisher giovanni brunero. this was girardengo's second career giro victory. girardengo, brunero, and gaetano belloni didn't start the 1924 edition due to an argument over their compensation. their decision not to participate gave the other general classification hopefuls a bigger chance to win the giro. after the event's eighth leg that saw awful road and weather conditions, giuseppe enrici emerged as the overall leader and eventual winner. in addition, this giro saw the first and only woman ever to compete in the race's history in alfonsina strada. she was eliminated from the race after the seventh stage; however, the organizers allowed her to continue the race thought she wouldn't be included in the general classification. strada made it all the way to the event's finish in milan and finished around twenty hours slower than the winner enrici.