The origins of what was to become possibly the greatest amateur cycling events of all-times, seem lost in the mist of time, over half a century ago. Given the utter devastation of Central Europe by World War II, the beginnings of the Peace Race , in 1948, had to, by definition, be relatively humble. But, what might have been lacking in technical expertise and material support, was more than made up by the enthusiasm of the participating riders, the dedication of the countless volunteers who ran the race and the support of the masses of spectators who lined the route of the entire race. The 1948 was the only year when the Peace Race had been run as two simultaneous events connecting Prague and Warsaw. Both events ran over shocking roads, saw riders plagued by endless mechanical problems and, on occasions, even left the race officials confused, but the public response to the race was nothing but phenomenal. By the time the 1848 winners Alexander Zoric and Augustin Prosenik returned to their native Yugoslavia, cycling officials in Prague and Warsaw were already busily planning the 1949 event.

1949 saw the triumph of the rider who was denied  victory in the inaugural event by plain bad luck, Jan Vesely [CSR]. Vesely really was the most influential rider, not just during the Beginnings years of the Peace Race, but throughout its entire first decade. In addition to his 1949 individual victory, Vesely led the Czechoslovak team to four Team Competition wins in 1950,1951, 1954 and 1955: while he himself was twice the runner-up in the individual classification (1952 and 1955) and won the total of 16 Peace Race stages.

In 1950 began the period of Danish domination of the "May Stages" (as the Peace Race was often called). Willy Emborg took out the 1950 race, followed by Kai Allan Olsen a year later, and by Christian Pedersen in 1953. The 1952 winner came from across the English Channel and his name was Ian Steel.

There was, however, much more to remember about Peace Race peloton, during the first six year of the Great Race then the names of the race winners. There were the exploits of  that great Czechoslovak road sprinter, Vlastimil Ruzicka, the sheer bad luck that pursued the promising Austrian rider, Franz Deutch, the tireless team work of the Danish road captain Wedell Oestergaard and the brilliant individual efforts of Jean Stablinski, the future Professional World Champion and the "right-hand" of the great Jacques Anquetil.
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Perhaps the most spectacular contests ever witnessed in the world of amateur cycling took place on the road between Prague, Berlin and Warsaw from 1954 to 1969. These 15 editions of the Peace Race saw too many great champions to enumerate here, offered too many great battles to recount. Sterile figures tell us that 1637 riders started in these 15 golden editions of the Peace Race and 1223 made it to the finish. There were of course only 15 Yellow Jersey winners, but great personal achievements were almost without count. UCI's official recognition of the Peace Race, in 1954, brought the best of Europe's amateur riders to the "May Stages", but the years 1954 to 1968 were very much held to ransom by the great wealth of cycling talent brought forth by the German Democratic Republic and by the Soviet Union. 

One rider who stood head and shoulders above the other 1636 starters in the "May Stages" of this period, was the East German legend, Täve Schur. Täve rode the Peace Race record 12 times, between 1952 and 1964. In addition to achieving the unique feat of winning the Peace Race twice, in 1955 and 1959, he won nine stages and led the GDR team to five overall Team Competition victories (in 1953, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1964 – his last year in the Great Race). In addition to his decade long presence in the Peace Race, Täve Schur also won Amateur Road Championships twice in succession, 1958, and 1959. As for Täve Schur's team mates, Erich Hagen, Klaus Ampler and Axel Peschel, added further three overall Peace Race victories for East germany to his two laurels, in 1960, 1963 and 1968.

The 1956 Peace Race did well and truly usher in the era of Soviet predominance in the race. Under the guidance of their legendary coach Leonid Selesnev, the riders of the "Sbornaja Komanda" (or "the assembled/selected Soviet team") came to replaced the Czechoslovaks as the main animators of the Peace Race - winning  three individual and seven team overall victories, during the period from late 1950's to mid-1960's. Among the greatest riders to ride the Peace Race in Soviet colours were, Jurij Melichov (the winner in 1961), Gajdan Sajdchuzin (the victor in 1962), Victor Kapitonov (the Olympic Road Race Champion from Rome 1960) and the highly talented and on occasions a little unlucky Alexej Petrov. The strength of the Soviet team was, however, their great capacity to ride as a team, first and always. Let us take, for example, at the key the events of the 1965 edition of the Peace Race. When the race leader Alexej Petrov was forced toabandon while in Yellow, his less experienced team, Genadij Lebedev, suddenly found himself leading the race of his life. After two transit stages came perhaps the hardest stage of the 1965 event, stage 9: Dubnica - Svit. 215 hilly km, appeared to have been ready made to provide a decisive selection. Indeed, on the day a small break containing two strong contenders for the overall crown, Pavel Dolezel [CSSR] and Constantin Dumitrescu [ROM], got away and quickly worked well to an advantage of over 5 minutes. Jurij Melichov was the only Soviet rider to catch the break. Rather than seeing this as a opportunity to try to repeat his overall victory from 1961, he did all he could to slow the break down. But as one against six can achieve only so much, Melichov saved his strength for the finish, winning the stage and taking the 60 seconds time bonus that might have cost Lebedev the Yellow Jersey.

The Golden Age of the Peace Race also saw great victories by riders outside the East German and Soviet camps. Eluf Dalgaard was in 1954, the last Danish Peace Race winner to this day, while in 1956 Stanislaw Krolak gave Poland (the Peace Race co-founding country) it's first ever overall race victory. A year later, in 1957, Bulgarian Nenco Christov won virtually on his own in one of the most hotly contested events. Jan Smolik's great win, in 1964. coming as it did after ten years of indifferent results, heralded the beginnings of the renaissance of Czechoslovak cycling, while 1958, 1966 ans 1967 saw great wins by West European riders, Piet Damen, Bernard Guyot and Marcel Maes, who were soon to join the professional peloton.
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During the two decades from the End of the Prague Spring to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Peace Race became a show case of the East European sport and organization. Although the stages became somewhat shorter by this time, and the participation by strong West European riders became a thing of the past (Jean-Pierre Danguillaume of France was the only  winner, in 1969,  from outside Eastern Europe during this 21 year period) the intensity of the race competition was as fierce as ever. The new decade of the 1970's saw the emergence of a new cycling power in the Peace Race, Poland. Between 1970 and 1975 the Polish team coached by the indomitable Henryk Lasak, utterly dominated the "may Stages", with five individual and two team victories. 1970 was perhaps the greatest year for Polish cyclist in the Peace Race;  they took home all the Jerseys on offer: Yellow, Purple and Blue; they won the total of 9 stages (out of the 15 on offer) and had the staggering total of five riders in the top 10 overall. The most impressive rider on the Polish team of those years and, arguably one of the greets Peace Race champions was Ryszard Szurkowski. Ryszard won the Great Race unprecedented four times, 1970, 1971, 1973 (when he also became the Amateur World Champion) and 1975. If you read on, you will see how it took full 23 years (until 1998) to find a rider who could equal Ryszard Szurkowski's great record.

Ryszard Szurkowski was, however, one of a number of truly great riders who graced the Peace Race during the 1970's and 1980's. After him came men like the 1980 Olympic Champion, Sergei Suchorucenkov [USSR], the complete stage race ride, Olaf Ludwig [GDR], the strong chrono man and 100 km TTT Gold Medalist from Seoul, Uwe Raab [GDR], the Eastern European pioneer in the Tour de France peloton, Czeslaw Lang, the great Dutch tour rider of the 1980's, Peter Winnen,and, last but by no means least, the Peace Race's only hat trick winner (1987-1989) Uwe Ampler [GDR].

At the team level, the decline of Polish Peace Race predominance in mid-1970's brought in the second era of the Soviet team's predominance in the Peace Race: 1975 to 1986. During this 12 year period the "Sbornaja Komanda"  won the Team Competition staggering 10 times and its riders took home the Yellow Jersey on 6 occasions. The East German team did, during this period produce a number of great Yellow Jersey winners: Hans J. Hartnick, in 1976, Olaf Ludwig, in 1982 and 1986 and  Falk Boden, in 1983: but they took home the Blue Jerseys of the Best Team only twice, in 1982 and 1983.

As for Czechoslovak cycling, the Spring to Fall period presented the fans with something to cheer about: Vlastimil Moravec's narrow (by 2 seconds!) overall victory in 1972, the 3rd place overall by Milos Hrazdira, in 1974 and the 6 stage wins by Antonin Bartonicek. In the Team Competition the CSSR riders came in 2nd overall in 1970 and 1972, but the Blue Jerseys, last won by the great Jan Vesely led team in distant 1955 kept eluding them still. For the most part (on 14? occasions during these 21 Spring to Fall editions of the Peace Race), the Czechoslovaks  came in third.

The Spring to Fall years of the Peace Race also saw many great "Firsts": like Allan, in 1973, winning the first stage for Australia, or Weibel,  in 1975, becoming the first Peace Race stage winner from West Germany and the USA rider Rogers achieving a great 4th place overall in 1983.
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Once the Berlin Wall was down and the Soviet era came to an end, the Peace Race had to find a new place for itself amidst the sudden upsurge activity that followed the decades of imposed order. Economic realities bit particularly hard. The unlimited government funding was suddenly the thing of the past and there was the pressing need to find sponsorship to cover the very substantial cost of running a major stage race. The most immediate result was the shrinking format of the race, no more bold journeys from Moscow to Berlin, no more sports extravaganzas in the stage finish cities, gone the race caravan that rivalled that of the Tour de France.  But the Great Race lived on. Diminished, yes, reduced from the undisputed position of the premier amateur stage race in the world, for long decades to a lowly, local event with the lowest available UCI international stage race ranking of 2.5 in 1995: but beaten never! 

The Open Era did take its toll, in particular on the early 1990's edition of the Peace Race. The fans were still keen to see what they remembered as the Great Spring Festival of Sport, but by 1992 only 91 riders appeared at the Peace Race start and the race itself had been reduced to mere 10 stages. Then, in  1994, small professional teams, like the Czech-Australian, ZVVZ-Giant, began to take part in the "May Stages".  This brought much renewed vigour to the fading "Old Race" . No one was surprised then when the ZVVZ-Giant's German rider, Jens Voigt, took the Yellow Jersey that year, while their Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen won three (out of the 10 offered) stages. Next year (1995) saw the hard fought victory by Czechoslovak rider, Pavel Padrnos, of the TICO Bayer team, over Dariusz Baranowski and Thomas Brozyna of Poland. Then, in 1996, when Steffen Wesemann [GER], the winner fo the much depleted 1992 event, returned to the Peace Race, now as a member of the crack German Team Telekom, the Peace Race Open Era arrived in earnest. Wesemann won that year and again in 1997 - supported as he was by what then arguably was the "best team in the game".

Then came the 1998 edition of the Peace Race and suddenly the Great Race began to come alive again with echoes of past glories. In 1998 two great German riders lined up at the race start in Poznan [Poland], Steffen Wesemann and Uwe Ampler. Both had three Peace Race overall victories under the belt, both wanted to equal Ryszard Szurkowski's 23 years old record of four wins and to become the first German rider to do so. Where Wesemann could count on the support of one of the world's best professional teams, German Telekom, led by the 1966 Tour de France winner, Bjarne Riis [DEN], Ampler, on the other hand,  rode on the small Div II Polish outfit Mroz. Much was written about this David and Goliath contest which ended up with Uwe Ampler's resounding triumph in Erfurt. For my money, not since Nenco Christov [BUL], in 1957, has an individual won the Yellow Jersey against such odds. But, in any case, 1998 seemed like the watershed year for the "new" Peace Race: great sporting contest, passionate support by fans and, for the first time, a successful venture into the territories formerly parts of the West Germany. 

As for 1999, who knows what it will bring. One can but hope that the Second Golden Age of the Great Race is not s far off and maybe, just maybe, we might yet see the truly Grand Tour traversing Europe from Moscow to Paris, as we once dreamt in our youth and the heady days of the late 1960's.
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