Cycling Book of the Year 2015 - Cross British Sports Book Award
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 well as through
the Stasi file - an organization that 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.
