Cycling Book of the Year
- Cross British Sports Book Awards When the ` Iron Curtain` descended across Europe, Dieter Wiedemann was a hero of East German sport. A podium finisher in The Peace Race, the Eastern Bloc equivalent of the Tour de France, he was a pin-up for the supremacy of socialism over the `fascist` West. Unbeknownst to the authorities, however, he had fallen in love with Sylvia Hermann, a girl from the other side of the wall. Socialist doctrine had it that the two of them were `class enemies`, & as a famous athlete Dieter`s every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, & in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat & mouse, he plotted his escape. In 1964 he was delegated, once & once only, to West Germany. Here he was to ride a qualification race for the Tokyo Olympics, but instead committed the most treacherous of all the crimes against socialism. Dieter Wiedemann, sporting icon & Soviet pawn, defected to the other side. Whilst Wiedemann fulfilled his lifetime ambition of racing in the Tour de France, his defection caused a huge scandal. The Stasi sought to `repatriate` him, with horrific consequences both for him & the family he left behind. Fifty years on, & twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dieter Wiedemann decided it was time to tell his story. Through his testimony & that of others involved, & through the Stasi file, which has stalked him for half a century, Herbie Sykes uncovers an astonishing tale. It is one of love & betrayal, of the madness at the heart of the cold war, & of the greatest bike race in history.