The 39th International Peace Tour (Course de la paix) was a cycling race that was held from May 6 to May 22, 1986. It consisted of 14 individual stages and led for the first time from Kiev via Warsaw and Berlin to Prague over a total length of 2138 km . The ride won Olaf Ludwig from the GDR .
The team of the USSR won the team competition . The best climber was Petar Petrow from Bulgaria . The most versatile (pink jersey), most active (purple jersey) and the best in points (white jersey) driver was Olaf Ludwig from the GDR .
After the 38th edition of the Peace Tour , which started in Moscow in 1985 because of the 40th anniversary of liberation from Hitler fascism , it was decided in autumn 1985 to start the 39th Peace Tour again on Soviet territory. This time Kiev, the capital of the then Ukrainian SSR , was chosen as the starting point for the race . On January 24, 1986, the Peace Travel Committee in Berlin even announced that the Soviet Union would be included in the organization as an event partner in the future. However, after the events of the 39th Peace Tour, it was no longer mentioned. By the registration deadline on March 31, 1986, a usual field of 19 teams with 114 athletes had registered. For the first time, drivers from Turkey and Syria should take part in the stage race. The registration of a Swiss team should still be checked. The following start numbers were then assigned by the race management:
141 - 146 Turkey
151 - 156 Hungary
161 - 166 France
171 - 176 Cuba
181 - 186 Yugoslavia
191 - 196 SyriaTurkey Hungary 1957 France Cuba Yugoslavia Socialist Federal Republic Syria
Chernobyl
Ten days before the start of the peace voyage, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred about 100 km north of Kiev . As a result, nine teams, including Romania and Yugoslavia, were canceled. Despite the considerable health risks, the take-off location was not relocated, and information on the extent of the accident was generally sparse. Drivers from then socialist countries were threatened with the end of their competitive sporting career if they did not participate, for example Olaf Ludwig. In the end there were even four drivers from Finland who were registered at short notice. The starting field had shrunk to 64 drivers at the start of the race, with France and Finland only two non-socialist countries sent a team.
The opening race began on the Kievan Krestschatik and was opened by the GDR team captain Thomas Barth. With 8:41 minutes, he immediately set a strong time that was enough for fourth place in the end. Only Viktor Klimov was able to undercut this time by five seconds. Uwe Ampler arrived at the same time, so that the hundredths of a second had to count hard. According to the evaluation, Ampler was 22 hundredths faster than Klimow. The race was exciting until the end, the Bulgarian Nentscho Stajkow came in third, just one second behind. For the first stage, Uwe Ampler started in yellow, the GDR team in the blue jerseys.
The first stage was a 19.7-kilometer circuit that had to be completed seven times. Thus, a total of 138 kilometers were covered by the driver field in the Kiev city area. The route was characterized by three gradients. For a long time the Hungarian led Hirth on a solo trip, but he was caught again. In the fourth round, shortly before the second premium spurt, a trio with the Czechoslovak Regec, the Bulgarian Saikow and the Mongolian Ganbold pulled away and quickly gained a lead. Since the field was not really in agreement and the teams of the runaways thwarted advances again and again, the trio ended the race with a good two minutes ahead of the main field. The fastest was Jozef Regec, who was also able to win the yellow jersey. Due to the extended lead, the three outliers now also led the overall standings. The ČSSR team drove in blue for the first time in seven years.
The second stage was a team time trial over 48 kilometers in Kiev. With World Champion USSR, Vice World Champion ČSSR, World Cup fourth GDR and World Cup fifth Poland, five strong teams from last year's Road World Cup were there. It was no surprise that World Champion USSR took over the lead after the first quarter and did not give it up until the finish. Ultimately, the Soviet sextet was almost two minutes ahead of the second-placed GDR team. With this outcome of the race, the Soviet team won the blue jerseys.
The fourth day of the race in Kiev gave the drivers the first really demanding track, which was peppered with three mountain ratings and three premium ratings. A mountainous and winding route 12.7 kilometers in length had to be traversed a total of twelve times. Due to this route profile, the field of drivers had already spread out halfway through the route. At kilometer 124 on the tenth lap, a heavy rain shower surprised the riders and caused numerous falls. After the last mountain classification at kilometer 134, Vladimir Pulnikov from the Soviet Union attracted an irresistible attraction and, together with the Czechoslovak fort, quickly brought a distance between himself and the field. The GDR team in particular, with Dan Radtke and Uwe Raab, made sure that the distance was never more than 200 meters, so that their best sprinter, Olaf Ludwig, could still be in the limelight at the finish line. 2000 meters from the finish, Ludwig started to pursue and was 40 meters away from the leading Pulnikow on the home straight. With a brilliant final sprint, Ludwig was able to decide the stage for himself in the end. Disarmingly honestly, Ludwig confessed to a radio reporter after reaching the finish line that he would not have taken on these exertions if a blue jersey had not been lit up there.
On the morning of May 10th, the field of drivers left the Ukrainian capital Kiev on a special Aeroflot aircraft. After 75 minutes you landed in Warsaw, and in the afternoon, in cool, rainy weather, you could tackle the fifth stage. The route consisted of a 6.5-kilometer circuit that had to be completed ten times. There were a total of four award evaluations during the journey. In the end, the stage was won again by Olaf Ludwig, who positioned himself at the front of the field at the beginning of the last lap and started the sprint from the beginning. In the clearly distant field of pursuers, a fight broke out, especially for second place, which Romanov decided in the end before Uwe Raab. The fact that the peace drive had now arrived in Poland could also be felt in the activity of the Polish team: three drivers alone finished fourth to sixth. Despite two victories in a row by Olaf Ludwig, Regec continued to drive in yellow, the USSR team in blue.
The longest stage up to that point was characterized by strong cross winds and later in the race by rain. Especially before the premium sprints, the teams from Poland, the USSR, the GDR and also the ČSSR shaped the events. Olaf Ludwig was able to win three of six premium sprints alone and thus secured the purple jersey he was still missing. In pouring rain there was an exciting sprint decision in the streets of Poznań, which Ludwig ultimately won over the Soviet driver Saitow. The decision was so tight that the target photo had to be taken. Despite three wins in a row by Olaf Ludwig, Regec continued to drive in yellow, the USSR team in blue. Ludwig had meanwhile fought for all other jerseys apart from the mountain classification .
The sixth stage, with few highlights, was again characterized by strong edge winds. Excitement caused a mass fall at kilometer 148, in which the Frenchman Laffille suffered severe facial injuries and had to give up. The decision was made ten kilometers from the finish when the Bulgarian Petrov made the most energetic attempt to break away on the only significant incline of the stage and quickly gained a 20-second lead. This lead melted down a bit, but in the end it was enough for Bulgaria's eleventh stage win in a peace run. Shortly afterwards, Olaf Ludwig won the sprint of the main field. Nevertheless, Regec continued to drive in yellow, the USSR in blue.
On the last stage on Polish territory, the Polish team achieved their first victory of the day. She was constantly trying to tear the field apart, which was mainly prevented by the drivers of the ČSSR. Due to this tactic, there were hardly any attempts to break away on the fast stage and the decision had to be made in the finish sprint. The Pole Wrona won the long finish sprint just ahead of Olaf Ludwig.
The eighth stage led the field of drivers for the first time to GDR territory and straight to the capital in Berlin. Via Pasewalk , Prenzlau , Angermünde , Eberswalde-Finow and Werneuchen , the drivers at Ahrensfelde reached the Berlin urban area. The field turned fairly closed onto Karl-Marx-Allee , on which Olaf Ludwig once again won the finish sprint under the eyes of members of the GDR party and state leadership. It was Ludwig's 25th stage victory. With the fourth win of the day, Ludwig moved up to 41 seconds on the still overall leader Regec.
The second longest stage began at 11.45 a.m. with an honorary start on Karl-Marx-Allee near Café Moskau . Half an hour later the race began on Köpenicker Landstrasse near Baumschulenstrasse in the direction of Potsdam . The field headed for Halle via Treuenbrietzen , Lutherstadt Wittenberg , Graefenhainichen and Bitterfeld . With edge wind and moderate temperatures, the course of the race was characterized by two larger attempts to break away. From Stahnsdorf the Cuban Salazar and the Mongol Munchbad separated and decided the premium sprints in Potsdam and Wittenberg among themselves. After they were caught up, the Mongolian Ganbold tried it from kilometer 140, so that he had managed almost two minutes in the premium sprint in Bitterfeld. However, his strength did not reach the goal and he was swallowed up again by the field. Nine kilometers from the finish, Olaf Ludwig surprisingly drove an attack that he held out for two kilometers, but was then resumed in the field. Nevertheless, he found himself in the front row at the finish sprint and was able to celebrate his fifth win of the day despite the wave of a sprint opponent. The gap to yellow had now melted to 31 seconds. There was a day of rest after arriving in Halle.
After a day of rest, an individual time trial took place in Halle and the surrounding area, which messed up the previous ranking. The drivers started on the wide Franckestrasse heading west on today's B 80 . The drivers turned around at the junction to Höhnstedt . Started with two reigning world champions in the team time trial, the sextet from the USSR was the dominant team. In the end, all of the drivers from the selection in blue were among the top ten. Vasily Zhdanov won the race in front of three other teammates. Ultimately, the decisive factor was the performance of Wladimir Pulnikow, who was runner-up by one minute ahead of the yellow aspirant Olaf Ludwig. Ludwig drove a respectable race for his standards and came in eleventh. The overall leader Regec fell back 1:11 minutes behind Ludwig. In the end, the overall lead after the race led to the strange situation that Ludwig and Pulnikow had the same total time. Because of his better placements in the previous stages, Ludwig was awarded the yellow jersey, so that he was now driving in yellow for the first time after five days' victories.
The eleventh stage led via Schkopau , Weißenfels , Gera , Zeitz and Zwickau to what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt , where the finish line was in front of the Karl-Marx-Monument . Since it took place on a Sunday, countless spectators lined the roadsides, the newspaper Neues Deutschland wrote about half a million. The many interim ratings added to the attractiveness, there were five premium sprints and four mountain ratings, in which the Bulgarian Petrov stood out and won three mountain ratings alone. The reward for this was the green jersey at the end of the day. The demanding route demanded a lot from the drivers, at kilometer 123 it finally tore apart. As a result, top groups formed again and again, but they were never able to break away decisively. At kilometer 144, victory favorite Ludwig had to survive a moment of shock after a bicycle damage, but immediately got Uwe Ampler's bike and was able to catch up with the leading group again. In Karl-Marx-Stadt, a 32-strong top group with all of the top drivers prepared for the final sprint, which Olaf Ludwig initially also won. He was also the first to be honored at the small award ceremony shortly after arrival. But then the referee committee decided to revoke Ludwig's victory because he had taken his hands off the handlebars at the finish. Since Ludwig had already been warned in this regard at an earlier stage, the referee commission now intervened. First, Ludwig was placed in last place in the top group and received 30 penalty seconds on top. This would have made Pulnikow the sole overall leader. A protest by the GDR team leadership was initially rejected. The so-called Jury d´Appell , a body that can still review the decisions of the referee commission, finally made a Solomonic decision . Since Ludwig's behavior did not endanger spectators and drivers, she assessed the pronounced penalty in relation to the rule violation as "unreasonably high". The 30-second penalty was lifted and a final warning was given to Ludwig. The move back to 32nd place remained, however, so Ludwig had crossed the finish line at the same time as Pulnikow and kept the yellow jersey. The Polish team was ultimately able to achieve a double success.
12th stage: Karl-Marx-Stadt - Karlovy Vary, 130 km
The twelfth stage began with an honorary start at the Karl Marx Monument and officially started in Annaberger Straße on today's B 95 towards the Erzgebirge. Ehrenfriedersdorf , Annaberg-Buchholz and Oberwiesenthal were passed through on the German side . The weather was cool, around the Fichtelberg the drivers even struggled with fog. There were a total of six mountain classifications and three premium sprints. After 84 kilometer the USSR team started the attack on the yellow jersey. After the fifth mountain classification, which was won by Uwe Ampler, the three mountain specialists Ampler, Petrow and Pulnikow were able to quickly open a hole, which in the meantime was 20 seconds. When Ampler increased the pace again, Pulnikow could no longer follow and was swallowed by the peloton. A little later the 22-man chasing group, in which all GDR drivers were except Thomas Barth, caught up with the two outliers, but had to fight off the attacks of the USSR team again and again until the finish line. At the finish line, the drivers from the Czechoslovak Republic, who were on home soil for the first time, showed their flags and won the day with Anton Novosad in the Karlovy Vary stadium. The previous day's winner Leszek Stępniewski had to give up.
The thirteenth stage, which featured three mountain classifications and four premium sprints, was again marked by attacks on the yellow jersey. Since, besides Pulnikow, other drivers of the USSR team were in close proximity to Ludwig, the tactics were initially not specifically geared towards a Soviet driver. After almost a quarter of the route, the dominant advance for the stage developed. A breakaway group with Saitow (URS), Saikow (BUL), Garnier (FRA) and Uwe Ampler (GDR) was up to 110 seconds ahead of the main field. Since Saitow was only 24 seconds behind Ludwig, he was now the Soviet candidate for yellow. Consequently, his teammates tried to slow the pace of the main field. Of course, this was opposed by the GDR team that wanted to catch up with the breakaway group. Neues Deutschland wrote of “close coverage in the main field”, which even led to Mario Kummer's fall. But since Ampler slowed down the pace of the breakaway, the peloton managed to catch up with the leading group after 115 kilometers. But now the GDR team attacked and a ten-man top group formed, which was no longer overtaken by the field until the finish. Although Pulnikow stuck Ludwig on the rear wheel in this group, with Klimow, Saitow and Romanow the other promisingly placed Soviet riders were missing. Together with three Bulgarian drivers, Barth, Ludwig and Radtke kept the pace high and so the only remaining Soviet candidate, Pulnikow, was forced to flee to seek salvation. 1200 meters from the finish he put on a long sprint, which Ludwig went with immediately. The Geraer was the first to reach the stadium and there he couldn’t miss his sixth stage win. Ludwig was now four seconds ahead of Pulnikow in the overall standings, but already over a minute ahead of the Soviet drivers Klimow, Saitow, Uslamin and Romanow.
The fight for the yellow jersey continued unabated on the fourteenth stage, which featured two mountain classifications and five premium sprints. The main task for the GDR team was to keep an eye on Vladimir Pulnikov. This even went so far as not to let him collect too many points, especially in the mountain classifications, because the third place in the green jersey classification also received three seconds of time credit at the end of the race, seconds that could be decisive. As a result, Uwe Ampler, who won both mountain classifications and was only six points behind Petrow at the end of the day, stood out. The first mountain classification was generally tough. At Křivoklát , the drivers were faced with a steep wall made of small pavement, which led to hectic switchboards. This also affected Olaf Ludwig, who fell off the chain. However, he quickly caught up with the field again. After the second mountain classification, however, two GDR drivers, Barth and Kummer, had to demolish, so that the remaining GDR quartet had to fend off the attacks of a complete Soviet team. In the meantime, this also succeeded with Romanow, who at times gained a 30-second lead, but Uwe Ampler in particular succeeded in bringing the chasing group closer and keeping the pace up so that no more advances were made. At the finish line, Ludwig did not participate in the sprint, so this time Ivan Romanov from the Soviet Union managed to win the stage. Much acclaimed, two Czechoslovaks met with Roman Kreuziger and Anton Novosad. However, Olaf Ludwig kept the yellow and drove into Prague on the last stage.
On the last stage there were no more significant attacks on the yellow jersey. By winning the last mountain classification, Uwe Ampler moved up to one point on the Bulgarian Petrow, who however kept the green jersey in the overall classification. The 35-strong main field reached Prague as a single unit, where a sprint decision was made again in the Strahov Stadium. For the seventh time, Olaf Ludwig was ahead by a nose and underpinned his unique performance on this trip, where he won the pink, white and purple jerseys in addition to the yellow.
The tour finished 58 out of 64 riders who had started. In 50 hours, 51 minutes and 12 seconds, Olaf Ludwig from the GDR team won the peace drive for the second time after 1982. In second place followed, just 34 seconds behind, the Soviet newcomer to the Peace Drive, Vladimir Pulnikov . His teammate Asjat Saitow was third . Last in the overall standings was Agwanasshilijn Gansuch from Mongolia, who was seven hours, 49 minutes and 33 seconds behind the overall leader. Due to the events surrounding the Chernobyl disaster, the race was negatively affected from the start, as there were no strong opponents for the national teams of the host countries, especially with the teams from the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Germany and Italy. Uwe Ampler from the GDR wore the first yellow jersey of the race. On the third stage, however, he had to pay a lot of money and from then on had no chance in terms of the overall lead. The real surprise was the Czechoslovak rider Jozef Regec, who won yellow with his courageous attempt to break away on the first stage and carried it to Halle until the tenth stage. Until the decisive individual time trial in Halle, the race was characterized by the duel between Regec and Ludwig, whereby Ludwig was able to continuously reduce the gap to Regec with five stage wins, but was unable to catch up with him. The individual time trial in Halle turned the overall standings upside down as the Soviet team's tactics worked out perfectly. The fourfold success cemented the lead in the team classification, at the same time three or four Soviet drivers were suddenly able to get yellow. As a result, a duel developed between Olaf Ludwig and Wladimir Pulnikow, who were at the top for several stages at the same time, whereby Ludwig was allowed to slip on yellow because of his better daily results. The highlight of the duel between the Silver Grays from the GDR and the Blue from the Soviet Union was without a doubt the 13th stage, which Ludwig was able to win through an outstanding team performance of his teammates, whereby he clearly distanced all other Soviet yellow contenders except Pulnikov. When the Geraer was able to finish the 14th stage in yellow thanks to another outstanding team performance, the decision was made. In the shadow of the German-Soviet duel, the Bulgarian and Czechoslovak drivers were also able to ensure some respectable successes. The Bulgarian Saitow was placed third up to Halle. The drivers from Mongolia, Syria and Cuba, who occasionally drew attention to themselves through courageous attempts to break away or considerable individual placements, were splash of color.
The outstanding team of the race was the sextet from the Soviet Union, which offered two reigning team time trial world champions. Logically, it also took the lead after the second stage, the team time trial, and did not give it up again until the finish line. Before that, the teams from the GDR and the ČSSR had been able to wear blue once. In second place was the GDR team, which fought a thrilling duel with the Soviet Union for yellow from the eleventh stage at the latest. While the ČSSR team around Jozef Regec and the Bulgarians with top people Saitow, Petrow and old master Stajkow also had an invigorating effect, the Polish team owed a lot. Last year in Lech Piasecki she had the peace race winner and with Andrzej Mierzejewski also the overall runner-up, this time only two stage wins remained, one of which was only determined after the referee decided. Especially in the mountain stages, the Poles played no role.
Jersey ratings
Aside from the green jersey of the best climber, Olaf Ludwig took home all the other special jerseys in addition to the yellow one, underscoring his outstanding position on this trip. The best climber was Vladimir Pulnikow up to the tenth stage, although there had only been mountain ratings for one stage. On the eleventh stage, the Bulgarian climbing specialist Petar Petrow won three out of four mountain ratings and continued in green. With Uwe Ampler he became an equal opponent on the last stages, so that both were separated by a single point in the end.
Olaf Ludwig wore the white jersey after the second stage, the pink jersey once after the prologue and finally after the third stage, and purple was added after the fifth stage. This underscored his reputation as the best sprinter in the field, and his stage victories also helped to achieve these jerseys.
Overall rating
Mountain scoring
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Petar Petrov
Most active driver
Best sprinter
Most versatile driver
Best team
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Zedendambyn Ganbold
France
Sandor Vegvari
Torrez
