Peace Race

The Peace Race was an annual multiple stage bicycle race held in the Eastern Bloc states of Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland. First organized in 1948, it was originally created with the intent of relieving tensions existing between Central European countries following the interwar period and World War II.

Maintained by the three states ruling Communist parties' newspapers (Rudé právo, Neues Deutschland and Trybuna Ludu), it was dubbed to be the "world's biggest amateur cycling race" and "Tour de France of the East".

Following the fall of Communism in 1989, the Peace Race was no longer state-sponsored and organizers faced trouble with gathering funds. The event was last held in 2006.

History
The first Peace Race was held in 1948, when there were two editions connecting cities of Warsaw and Prague. The one to Prague was won by August Prosinek, the other one to Warsaw by Alexander Zoric, both from Yugoslavia. During the Cold War the Peace Race was known as the 'Tour de France of the East'.

Because cyclists from the Eastern Bloc were not allowed to become professional it was an amateur race. It attracted the best cyclists from communist countries, plus guest teams from non-communist countries. Communist-bloc riders tended to dominate the event, but there were exceptions: Briton Ian Steel won the 1952 race, and the British League of Racing Cyclists team also won the team competition - the first time that both classifications had gone to the same nation.

One of the later winners was Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, who also won the gold medal on the Olympic Road Race in 1980.

The most successful riders in the Peace Race was Steffen Wesemann from Germany who won the race five times; Ryszard Szurkowski from Poland and Uwe Ampler from East Germany each won the race four times. Gustav-Adolf Schur, who won the race twice, was voted the most popular East German sportsman ever in 1989.

After the end of the Cold War the race lost its significance. No race was held in 2005, and the 2006 race turned out to be the last. In 2006, the 58th edition took place on May 13–20. It started in Austria's Linz and via Czech Republic headed to Germany where it ended in Hannover. No capital city of these countries were crossed during the race.

After 2006, the race has been cancelled from the cycling calendar.

Legacy
In April/May 2012 Alan Buttler organised a re-run of the 1955 Peace Race as a tribute to his father, Alf Buttler, who has the GB cycling team mechanic for many events in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He was joined by former peace riders including Gustav-Adolf Schur, Geoff Wiles, John Woodburn, Alan Jacob, and Axel Peschel.

There is a museum in Kleinmühlingen in Germany dedicated to the Peace Race.

List of races
P=prologue, E=epilogue



Most individual wins
Cyclists with three wins at least listed

Overall:


 * 5 wins: Steffen Wesemann
 * 4 wins: Ryszard Szurkowski, Uwe Ampler

Sprinter competition:


 * 8 wins: Olaf Ludwig
 * 3 wins: Ryszard Szurkowski

Mountain climbers competition:


 * 3 wins: Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, Uwe Ampler, Jaroslav Bílek

Most team wins

 * 20 wins: Soviet Union
 * 10 wins: East Germany
 * 9 wins: Poland
 * 5 wins: Czechoslovakia
 * 3 wins: Team Mroz

Winners by country
Individual overall competitions were won by cyclist from following countries:


 * 12 wins: East Germany
 * 10 wins: Soviet Union
 * 7 wins: Poland, Germany
 * 5 wins: Denmark
 * 4 wins: Czechoslovakia
 * 3 wins: Czech Republic
 * 2 wins: SFR Yugoslavia, France, Italy
 * 1 win: United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Netherlands