The Race Against the Stasi

by Herbie Sykes

  To celebrate the Peace Race also means to know both your friends and your foes. This year it has become clear that the number of friends has increased, while the influence of the foes has diminished.

  Reprinted from ‘Friedensfahrt’, 9 May 1964

  DIETER

  My previous Peace Race had been a catastrophe for the GDR, but we were much stronger this time.

  Dieter Mickein won in Warsaw, and a Czech guy named Jan Smolik was second. Mickein got a minute’s time bonus, and Smolik got thirty seconds. So the stage earned Mickein the yellow jersey and the GDR team the blue one.

  I came in with the group. I wasn’t a sprinter and I wasn’t interested in contesting them anyway. The stadiums all had cinder tracks back then, so there tended to be crashes. To win them you needed to be an extremely good bike handler, and you also needed to be brave enough to attack the bends. The sprints at the Peace Race were very difficult to predict for all sorts of reasons. The cinder was treacherous anyway, but the fact that you’d people there who weren’t used to it complicated things further. You could be the greatest champion in the world, but if you got brought off by a guy who didn’t know how to ride the cinder you were done for. Obviously it was a national teams’ event, so people would go there in the hope that one of theirs would win. It was pretty dramatic, and that partly explains why the stadiums were always full. It’s also one of the reasons cycling was so popular.

  So, all things considered, it was an extremely good day, and the next was the team time trial, eighty-four kilometres to Łódź. It didn’t count towards the individual classification, but it was crucial for the blue jersey. We were really strong and we won it easily. Then, because we were the fastest, Hoffmann got the most points and took the violet jersey. Two stages gone and we had all three jerseys.

  There was a split the following day, and we all missed it. We only lost about thirty seconds, but Smolik took the jersey from Mickein. Nothing much happened in Poznań,50 so I went into the rest day with the same time as the rest of the GDR team, about two minutes down on Smolik.

  The race was wide open because we still had the hilly stages and the time trial to come. The only thing that Poland had proved was that the racing was extremely fast, that Ampler wasn’t as good as the previous year and that it was going to take a hell of a good rider to beat Smolik.

  Everyone came in together in Berlin, so we still had a two minute lead in the team competition. Smolik won the stage, so he got another minute in time bonuses. The Berlin to Leipzig stage was next, and it was always a big event in the Peace Race. Obviously Leipzig was a sports town anyway, but Chemie Leipzig had just won the GDR football championship. The stage was on the Friday, and before it there was a friendly match between Chemie and FC São Paulo. The stadium was full as usual; 100,000 people.51

  The seventh stage was Leipzig to Erfurt.52 It was hilly, and quite windy. It was a real battle, and you could tell that it was going to split any minute. I was going really well, and I knew that I had to ride as close to the front as possible so that I’d be OK when it split. Early in the stage there was a really strong crosswind, and it broke up. A group of a dozen or so went away, and I made sure I was in it.

  Hoffmann was with me, and then Appler got across. That meant we had the three we needed for the blue jersey. So did the Romanians and Poles, but Smolik was on his own and there were only two Russians. Had we started attacking Smolik one of us would probably have gone clear, but in the Peace Race you always rode for the team first and foremost. So we drove the break instead, and made sure we all came in. It was pointless for Schur, Ampler and Mickein to try to bridge across, because they’d have dragged the Czechs, Russians and Belgians with them and that would have been counterproductive for the blue jersey. Anyway we put five minutes into the peloton, and the upshot was that we increased our lead in the team competition.

  Smolik won again, Appler was second and Hoffmann and I came in safely. It was becoming obvious that Smolik was the strongest, but we had three in the top ten now and we’d eliminated everyone but the Poles and Romanians from the team prize. I was tenth at about four minutes, but the three from DHfK were out of the running for the GC. They were all at eight or nine minutes, and there was no way they were going to get that back.

  That evening we had dinner, and then went our separate ways. We were staying in some sort of company holiday home, and we were three to a room. I was with Hoffmann and Appler, and the DHfK guys stayed in the other room.

  Next was a forty-kilometre time trial to Oberhof, the ski station. Smolik won it, and Täve, me and Ampler were fifth, sixth and seventh. That moved me up to third on GC, behind Smolik and Hoffmann.53

  The blue jersey was pretty much sewn up, and on the second rest day the coach came to see us. He told us that if we held on to our positions we’d each get half the value of a Trabant as a bonus. That was about 5,000 marks, which was a huge amount of money.

  Hoffmann and I were fighting for the podium, but they didn’t ride for us. The hierarchy was DHfK, then Dynamo, and then the rest. Appler rode for Dynamo, so instead of looking after us they focused on trying to get him in a position to sprint for the time bonuses. I wasn’t one for arguing with my team-mates, but I maintain that, had Ampler and Schur been second and third, as opposed to me and Hoffmann, we’d have been ordered to try to ride Smolik into the ground in the hope that he’d crack. He was the strongest in the race, no question, but his team weren’t that good and I still believe that if you’re second and third in the Peace Race you deserve some protection. We didn’t get any, but at the end of the day I was SC Karl-Marx-Stadt and Hoffmann was ASK Vorwärts. So it wasn’t personal, not at all. We got on pretty well individually, but it was what it was.

  We held our positions to Prague anyway,54 and won the blue jersey easily.

  NEUES DEUTSCHLAND

  ORGAN DES ZENTRALKOMITEES DER SOZIALISTISCHEN EINHEITSPARTEI DEUTSCHLANDS

  This was something completely new for a GDR Peace Race team: coach Weisbrod rarely saw them during the stages. The reason was that they were always at the front of the race, and as such barely visible to the team car. They spared themselves unnecessary pursuits, but rather their almost perfect balance gave them the opportunity to place a ‘blue screen’ at the head of the peloton. And now here’s a short appraisal of the six (in order of their starting numbers):

  Klaus Ampler: The radiant winner of last year’s race never had a chance to repeat his success. This was clear even from the first stage, when he avoided a time loss thanks only to Schur’s help. What was remarkable was the guts and courage he showed by tirelessly fighting for the team. He grew stronger towards the finish, probably due to the improvement in the back injury which had undermined his training and caused his initial difficulties.

  Lothar Appler: In many respects the lanky Berliner was unrecognisable from last year. As regards confidence and initiative he was the best in the team. He was always ready to avert danger, and didn’t hesitate when important decisions needed to be made.

  Günter Hoffmann: The ‘substitute’ finished second in the Peace Race, and, and for that he deserves a huge round of applause. He never rode among the ‘sleepers’ (those who sit at the back of the peloton in order to preserve their energy), but was always to be found at the engine of the race.

  Dieter Mickein: There wasn’t a single metre between Warsaw and Prague in which he played the ‘novice’. He was desperately unhappy when he wasn’t able to complete the team time trial with the others. He was always in the breakaways, and the opposition knew that with him present their chances of claiming the blue jersey were slim. With a stage victory and two second places, he was the most successful GDR rider.

  Gustav-Adolf Schur: A masterful captain, who perhaps hoped for even better. The five minutes he lost for tactical reasons on the road to Leipzig deprived him of the opportunity, and a cold caused further difficulties. He steered his team through the race confidently, and added further still to the laurels he’s earned over the cours
e of his career. Those who had written him off need to think again.

  Dieter Wiedemann: A road racer of the toughest kind. The sprints aren’t his strength, but his rivals learned that he’s a relentless fighter who never puts a foot wrong. It’s worth noting because he was barely in the headlines, but a third-place finish at the Peace Race speaks for itself.

  Reprinted from ‘The winning team’, 25 May 1964

  DIETER

  When we flew home we had the big welcome party at Schönefeld Airport, and there was a limousine to take me back to Flöha. There were hundreds of people waiting to greet me, and the following afternoon there was a big parade and another reception. Previously I’d been one of the better cyclists, but probably not one of the more famous ones. Now that I was a podium finisher at the Peace Race everybody knew who I was, and I suppose I became quite famous. Half of the town turned out, and it was all over the radio and the local paper. Believe it or not I’m still a hero to some of the people there, even after all these years. Goes to show how big the Peace Race was, I guess.

  Mayor Hense told me that they were going to make me a freeman of the town. He said the people of Flöha wanted to award me a television in recognition of what I’d done at the Peace Race. That was a big thing because very few people had a television; you couldn’t go to a shop and buy one with GDR wages. He brought it round to our house in person, with one of his staff.

  On the Thursday I went back to the sport club for the first time, and the party recruitment officer was waiting for me. He said, ‘Well, Dieter, it looks like the time has come for you to join the party!’ He said I needed to join because it was important that I be seen to be a member.

  I’d come back from Prague with a knee injury though, so I told them I was focused on recovering from that. I said I needed to make sure I was ready for the Olympic trials in July, and that I couldn’t think about anything else for now. I said I’d join on Republic Day, 7 October. That way they’d get the publicity value of my doing it on a national holiday, and that’s how I managed to put it off.

  DIETER

  Later I was talking to one of the other Peace Race guys and he said, ‘Have you seen the man in black yet?’ He was the guy who always delivered the prize money, a tall bloke who carried a black suitcase. He always wore a black suit, black shoes, black tie and black raincoat. We called him the man in black because we had no idea what his name was. I said that he hadn’t turned up yet. He said he’d been to see him, but he hadn’t given him what we’d been promised. Anyway the man in black came to the club and I went to the secretary’s office to meet him. He opened his suitcase and congratulated me. He shook my hand and said, ‘Congratulations, you have honoured the GDR.’ Then he gave me a brown envelope, and left.

  It was 3,000 marks.

  DIETER

  You ask why I didn’t join the party, and if I’m honest it would probably have made my life easier in the short term. It would have tricked them into thinking that I was one of them, and with six weeks till Giessen that would have made sense. I still wasn’t going to do it, though, and I’ll tell you why.

  As I explained to you before, I didn’t want to be drawn into their world. I wasn’t political, but by now the politics they were practising were so disgusting that I wasn’t going to support them in any way. Had I joined I’d have been a hypocrite, and so I was resolved to hold out if I could. Had I actually won the Peace Race it would probably have been impossible to avoid, but the focus was more on the team prize than on what Hoffmann and I had done individually.

  So the reasons were ideological, but I had practical considerations as well.

  I’d been brought up in the GDR, so I assumed that the BND55 would be like the Stasi. If they’d found out that I’d recently joined the party they might have assumed I was a communist, and possibly even a Stasi agent. Then there was the possibility that the Stasi would have fed that information to the West German tabloids. I was quite a famous sportsman in the GDR, and if the press had me down as a communist I probably wouldn’t be able to get a job because of the negative publicity it might attract. So I didn’t know anything about life over there, but I didn’t want to risk making it any harder than it already was.

  The other thing was that I was about to defect to the Federal Republic of Germany. It was a capitalist country, and there was a war going on. Defection from the GDR was treasonable, and in attempting it I was declaring myself to be an enemy of the state and of socialism. The last thing I wanted to do was to rub their noses in it, or to provoke them any more than was absolutely necessary. I didn’t want to run the risk of them coming after me.

  DIETER

  On my birthday I was at a training camp in Greiz. Dietrich, the general secretary of the federation, called a meeting of the riders and all the staff. It was all about how we should conduct ourselves while we were in the west. He told us what we should do if we were approached by people trying to persuade us to stay.

  After he’d finished, Täve, who was the group spokesman, said, ‘Hang on, what about the money from the Peace Race?’ Dietrich said there was no more money, but Täve told him they’d promised us half a Trabant and that they couldn’t play tricks like that. Dietrich grabbed the microphone and shouted, ‘Comrade Schur – cease this discussion now! If you don’t you’ll be thrown out of the party and each of you will pay back the money you’ve received.’ The point is that they were threatening Täve Schur, so what hope was there for the likes of me?

  The irony was that each time they tried to turn the screw it had completely the reverse effect on me. The more it felt like I was living in a prison the more I was determined to break out of it.

  SYLVIA

  We mentioned Giessen in the letters, yes. We were excited, but it was also common sense. It would have seemed a bit strange if we hadn’t, because it was logical that I’d be going to watch the race.

  He’d send me progress reports on his racing and suchlike, but they were actually written in a sort of code. He would write that he was looking forward to it so much, but he’d also make reference to the chance that he might be able to represent his country in Tokyo. He wrote about my coming back to Flöha as well, so anyone reading the letters would think that Giessen was just another chance for us to see each other. They read like it was a means to an end, but the end was Tokyo, not Mitterteich.

  EBERHARD

  The letters were coming all the time, and we all saw the western postmarks. We’d met the girl at the wedding anniversary, and we knew she was important to him. We talked about the possibility of his leaving within the family, but only when he wasn’t around.

  The contact I had with him was minimal at this point, because we were both busy with our respective training programmes. So our relationship wasn’t as close, but obviously I followed his career and I knew he’d be going to Giessen. I wouldn’t say I was expecting him to defect, no, but I knew him and I thought it was a possibility. As it drew nearer it was just something you kind of waited for.

  RAINER

  When he went to Giessen I had a feeling he wouldn’t come back. Obviously I didn’t tell anybody, but I said to myself, ‘If Dieter comes back then my name is Maier, not Müller.’ They were in love.

  DIETER

  I thought long and hard about it, and I was resigned to the fact that I may never see my family again. I was leaving everything behind, including friends I’d known since school and from the club.

  It was inconceivable I might talk to anybody about it, and it never even crossed my mind. Let’s say I spoke to somebody about it in confidence. He might then tell someone else in confidence, and his friend might tell someone else. Somewhere along the line it would have got back to the Stasi, and that would have been me finished. Then even if it went no further I’d have been burdening somebody else with it, and I didn’t want to do that.

  I was prepared for it intellectually, and as far as I could emotionally, but I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on what I was leaving behind.

  Regard
less, I was focused on my own life, and on what was happening to me.

  DIETER

  The idea of the Olympic trials was to give both sides an equal chance. So there would be Giessen on 5 July, and the winner would get thirty points. The runner-up would get twenty-six, and so on and so forth. The next week there’d be the decider at Erfurt, and the four with the highest aggregate would qualify, along with a reserve.

  I reckoned that if I made it to Japan it would probably be safer. The perfect scenario would have been to walk into the FRG embassy in Tokyo and claim asylum. The problem was the fact that only five would make it, and I didn’t fancy my chances. I wasn’t a sprinter and I knew the courses wouldn’t be selective enough for me to get the points. I knew that Giessen was the best chance I was ever going to have, and probably the only chance.

  DIETER