A01=Herbie Sykes
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Author_Herbie Sykes
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behind the iron curtain
Berlin
book about iron curtain
book about the stasi
books about cycling
books about famous cyclists
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGS
Category=DNBS
Category=HBJD
Category=HBTW
Category=NHD
Category=NHTW
Category=SMQ
Category=WSQ
cold war
cold war history
cold war real life stories
COP=United Kingdom
cycle race
cycling book
Cycling history
cycling story
cyclist
cyclist autobiography
cyclist biography
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Dieter Wiedemann
east german athlete
east german cyclist
east german sporting icon
east german sports men
East Germany
Eastern Bloc
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
escape the stasi
escaping east germany
fall of berlin wall
famous east german defectors
greatest bike race in history
history of cycling
international cycle race
Iron Curtain
iron curtain history
Language_English
love story against cold war backdrop
love story cold war
love story cycling
love story iron curtain
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
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real life escape story
real story from behind the iron curtain
softlaunch
sport during the cold war
Stasi
stories from east germany
story about defecting from east germany
story of Dieter Wiedemann
The Peace Race
thrilling sports books
thrilling war time story
Tom Simpson
Tour de France
West Grmany
Product details
- ISBN 9781781315361
- Weight: 302g
- Dimensions: 133 x 200mm
- Publication Date: 14 Jan 2016
- Publisher: Quarto Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
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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', and as a famous athlete Dieter's every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, and in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, he plotted his escape. In 1964 he was delegated, once and 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 and 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 and the family he left behind. Fifty years on, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dieter Wiedemann decided it was time to tell his story. Through his testimony and that of others involved, and through the Stasi file, which has stalked him for half a century, Herbie Sykes uncovers an astonishing tale. It is one of love and betrayal, of the madness at the heart of the cold war, and of the greatest bike race in history.
HERBIE SYKES is a cycling journalist, historian and author of The Eagle of Canavese, about Franco Balmamion, Maglia Rosa: Triumph and Tragedy at the Giro d'Italia, and Coppi: Inside the Legend of Campionissimo Sykes lives in Turin, and writes for a number of cycling publications.
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