Peace Race/Course de la Paix 1979
    PRAGUE - WARSAW - BERLIN 

It wasn't as if Sergei lacked form that year, or experience in great stage races, for that matter. In actual fact he came to the 1979 Peace Race after having won the prestigious Giro delle Regioni (in Italy) in a great display of individual attacking riding across high mountains. The problem was, it seems, that Suchorucenkov's highly individualistic attacking style didn't sit well with the Soviet National Team Selectors "perspective".

All in all Sergei Suchorucenkov only started in the Peace Race three times, in 1979, 1981 and 1984. On each of those occasions he was a member of the Soviet team that won the Team Competition (Blue Jerseys), while individually he never placed worse than 2nd overall! As for lesser prizes, Suchorucenkov was the Best Climber (Green Jersey) every time he started and won the total of four stages. When he came second on GC in 1981, Sergei Suchorucenkov was riding in the defense of his team mate's, Sachid Zagretdinov's Yellow Jersey, otherwise he would have surely made it three overall victories from three starts. When his won his 2nd Peace Race in 1984, Sergei Suchorucenkov became the only Soviet rider ever to win the Peace Race more than once.

Suchorucenkov's excellence as a climber was further vindicated by his unique achievements in France where he became the first Soviet (and indeed Eastern Block) rider to win the prestigious Tour de l'Avenir in 1978 and again in 1979⁴. No other rider has ever achieved two victories in this French race before, or after Sergei's back to back wins and the great East German Olaf Ludwig became the only other Soviet Block rider to win this demanding Tour, when his turn came to dominate the amateur cycling world, in 1983.

Sergei Suchorucenkov's other great triumph came in 1980, when he won the Olympic Road Race at the Moscow Games, staged on the brutal Krylatske circuit designed by Victor Kapitonov (himself a winner of the last Soviet Individual Road Race Olympic Gold, at the Rome Games, 20 long years ago). Like his coach Kapitonov in 1960, Suchorucenkov too won in a decisive fashion, arriving at the finishing line alone, almost 3 minutes ahead of the great Polish pre-race favorite Czeslaw Lang. Strangely enough, Suchorucenkov, a very respectable rider in races against the clock, had never been selected to compete for his country at either the Olympic, or at the Worlds 100 km TT. The 1984 Soviet boycott of the LA Games also prevented him from defending his Individual Road Race Olympic Title (from US boycotted) Moscow Games against all comers.

His great ride at the Moscow Olympics notwithstanding, I believe that 1979, which saw Sergei Suchorucenkov win all three great amateur races of that time: the Giro delle Regioni, the Peace Race and the Tour de l'Avenir, was perhaps the best season in his career.  None were surprised that his great results that year were recognized by the award of Palm d'Or trophy for the best amateur cyclist in the world. Sergei was actually awarded this most prestigious trophy for amateur riders three years in a row: 1979-1981, such was his superiority in the amateur peloton of his day. Needless to say, no other rider has ever equaled this achievement. What became of "Soukho", as Sergei Suchorucenkov was often called in the "West", after he hung up his bike in 1985? As far as I can tell, he returned home to his native Leningrad (now once again St. Petersburg) where he started an academic career at the Soviet Military Sports Institute. He had, however, maintained his involvement with cycling, though in a coaching role now, alongside his older brother Victor (who was also a Soviet representative cyclist of some note).

While Klasa and his team mates struggled to minimize their deficit on the 11 men lead group, Sergei Suchorucenkov [USSR] stamped his authority on the 1979 edition of the Great Race, showing us all what a great champion he was going to be - riding away, seemingly without effort, from his breakaway companions and arriving in Banska Bystrica unchallenged, nearly 4 minutes ahead of his nearest pursuer. He put on the Yellow Jersey that day, adding it to the Green Jersey of the Best Climber he took on the previous hilly stage from Olomouc to Dubnica. When Sergei won again in Kosice the next day, the 1979 race was effectively decided before it even reached its half way mark.

While Peace Race records speak of the 1979 event as the year that has seen the great  Sergei Suchorucenkov truly come of age and as yet another year of the utter domination of the May Stages by the Soviet team, all might have been well and truly lost for the riders from USSR on the last stage: Neubranderburg - Berlin. The 134, mostly flat, kilometers started as a bit of a victory parade for Suchorucenkov and the Soviet team who had solid (6 min+) leads over Andreas Petermann [GDR] and the Polish team in the individual and team competitions. On their way "home", to the finishing line and the post race celebrations in Berlin, the May Stages riders even had help from strong tail wind, making speeds over 60 km/h seem quite effortless. Well effortless, provided you were not the rider with a puncture, or mechanical problem that day. When the 5th placed Aavo Pikkuus punctured at about the 80 km mark, the captain of the Soviet team, Alexander Averin, himself waited for Aavo and helped him to regain the main bunch, all be it, after a long a strength sapping chase. Almost as soon as Pikkuus and Averin rejoined the peloton. The man in Yellow, Suchorucenkov, punctured. With the Soviet team car trapped in the following convoy, at this, perhaps, most crucial moment in the whole Race, things began to take on a rather bleak look. Then the cohesion and co-operation, which were the defining features of the "Sbornaja Komanda" in all its great Peace Race showings, came to the forefront. Sergej Nikitenko gave his bike to Suchorucenkov and pushed him of into the chase. At the same time, Sajd Gusejnov and Remazan Galaletdinov dropped back from the main field to help the race leader regain the safety of the peloton. 

The three chased long and hard, as the GDR and Polish teams joined strengths at the front of the race to set a really blistering pace, having realized that with Suchorucenkov chasing far back and with only two Soviet riders (Averin and Pikkuus) left in the main group, both the Yellow and the Blue Jerseys were there for the taking - by Petermann [GDR] and by the Polish team, respectively. For quite some time it looked like the German-Polish effort was going to succeed, but then with about 25 km to go to Berlin Alexander Averin proved what a great choice he had been for the "Sbornaja" captaincy that year. Much to the surprise of the hard  pushing East Germans and Poles, Averin indicated to Pikkuus (the only other Soviet rider in the main group) to drop back with him and wait for the chasing trio of Suchorucenkov, Gusejnov and Galaletdinov. When Victor Kapitonov called out to the quintet, from the now freely moving team car, that the hard chasing Nikitenko (now on a new bike) was not far behind them, Averin slowed the quintet down to allow Nikitenko to rejoin. With the full team together, the six Soviet riders began to time trial like their lives depended on it. Initially even the joint strengths of the six, riding together as a cohesive, well oiled, unit made little impact on the speeding peloton's time advantage. But then, as fatigue and disorganization at the front  of the race began to take its toll, in the closing 20 km or so of the stage, the chasing Soviet formation began to slowly gain ground, finally making contact with the main field with less than 10 km to go to the Finish in Berlin⁵. 

Thanks to a splendid exhibition of inspired captaincy and some truly great team work, the Soviet team was able to neutralize the late challenge from their main adversaries and to retain both Suchorucenkov's Yellow and the team's Blues Jerseys that year  In the process they rewrote the Peace Race record books yet again by making it  a 3rd consecutive year of winning both main Peace Race competitions and by winning the Team Contest for the unbelievable 5th year running!

This might be a good place as any to say a few words about Bernd Drogan. As far as I can establish, Drogan rode the Peace Race only twice in on 1977 and in 1979. In 1977, on his debut in the May Stages, Bernd came in a highly creditable 6th overall and took out the Berlin - Cottbus stage, Victory in Cottbus was must have  great personal significance for him, as it, in a way, represented a sort of graduation for the 22 year old rider who spent much of his junior racing days at the famous Cottbus "Cycling School". Two years later, in 1979, Drogan managed to snag three stage wins and ended the race 8th on the overall: all this while riding primarily in support of his team mate's Andeas Petermann's bid for overall victory. Although he performed with distinction on the roads between Prague, Berlin and Warsaw, Bernd Drogan's biggest moments came in a different arena, at the Worlds and at the Olympic Games. As we have just seen, at Valkenburg, in 1979, Drogan was a member of the GDR quartet which took out the 100 km TT and then he came in 3rd in the Individual (Amateur) Road Race. A year later, at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he won the Silver Medal in the same event (along with Hartnick, Boden and now Olaf Ludwig). In 1981 Drogan again donned the Rainbow Jersey of the  World Champion, when he, Boden, Ludwig and Mario Kummer, beat the reigning Olympic Champions USSR in the 100 km TT contest at the Worlds held in Prague [CSSR]. Bernd's greatest triumph did, however, come in 1982, at Goodwood, Great Britain. Drogan, now 27 years old, was considered by many "observers" to be almost too old to "do any good" on the demanding Goodwood circuit. Well, not only did he "do good", but he actually won his third (and most impressive?) Rainbow Jersey there - winning the 179 km Amateur Road Race in a daring 20 km+ solo break away.

1. The first era of Soviet pre-eminence in the "May Stages" lasted from the late 1950's to mid-1960's, when Leonid Selesnev held the USSR national cycling coach's baton. 
2. In 1979 the 9th stage : Opatow - Warsaw [206 km],  heralded the return, on a regular basis,  of "decent" length stages to the Peace Race after the break of a decade. The last previous 200 km+ stage was stage 7 : Wrozlaw - Poznan [203 km] in the 1969 edition of the Peace Race.
3. The "Black Stage" and all that notwithstanding, even the most pessimistic of the Czechoslovak cycling fans would  have never guessed that they will have to wait for 7 long years after Klasa's win in Dubnica to see a rider in the CSSR colors cross first again in a Peace Race road stage finish.
4.  Interestingly enough Sergei Suchorucenkov's record in the Tour de l'Avenir was even more impressive than his Peace Race showing (of 3 starts two wins and one 2nd place). Suchorucenkov rode the Tour de l'Avenir four times. He won it twice (in 1978 and again in 1979) and came in second twice (in 1980 and in 1981). In 1980 Colombian climber Alfonso Flores (who later featured in the 1983 and 1984 Tour de France) prevented Sergei's hat trick by a superior display of climbing prowess in the Alps, while a year later, in 1981, Pascal Simon won the race on account of his stronger performance in the races against the clock. At this point, it might we worthwhile to note that the Soviet team's period of domination of the Peace Race was also reflected in the USSR riders' performances in the Tour de l'Avenir, 1978-1980. In 1978 the riders from the "Sbornaja Komanda" occupied the podium - with Suchorucenkov 1st, Remazan Galaletdinov 2nd and Sergej Morozov 3rd. Year later, in 1979, Sergei Suchorucenkov repeated his triumph from 1978 and Sajd Gusejnov came in as the runner up. When Suchorucenkov came in 2nd in 1980, Jurij Kashirin was 3rd. 
5.  Based, in part,  on: Jiri Cerny, Ladislav Sosenka & Jaroslav Stanek: ZAVOD MIRU, Olympia/Sport, 1987, pp 139-140.