The Peace Race (, , , (), , , , ) was an annual multiple stage bicycle race held in the Eastern Bloc states of Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland. First organized in 1948, it was originally created with the intent of relieving tensions existing between Central European countries following the interwar period and World War II. Maintained by the three states ruling Communist parties' newspapers (Rudé právo, Neues Deutschland, and Trybuna Ludu), it was dubbed to be the "world's biggest amateur cycling race" and "Tour de France of the East". Following the fall of Communism in 1989, the Peace Race was no longer state-sponsored and organizers faced trouble with gathering funds. The event was last held in 2006. History The first Peace Race was held in 1948, when there were two editions connecting the cities of Warsaw and Prague. The one to Prague was won by August Prosinek, the other one to Warsaw by Alexander Zoric, both from Yugoslavia. During the Cold War the Peace Race was known as the 'Tour de France of the East'. Because cyclists from the Eastern Bloc were not allowed to become professional by their governments; it was a purely amateur race. It attracted the best cyclists from communist countries, plus guest teams from non-communist countries. Communist-bloc riders tended to dominate the event, but there were exceptions: Briton Ian Steel won the 1952 race, and the British League of Racing Cyclists team also won the team competition – the first time that both classifications had gone to the same nation. An Indian team took part in the race in 1952, 1954 and 1955. Indian racers were popular with the public, although they were not competitive. In 1954, Supravat Chravati completed the race in 77th position, 19 hours and 16 seconds after the winner. In 1955, Dhana Singh finished 28 hours, 24 minutes and 38 seconds after the winner. One of the later winners was Russian Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, who also won the gold medal on the Olympic Road Race in 1980. The most successful riders in the Peace Race were: Steffen Wesemann from Germany who won the race five times; Ryszard Szurkowski from Poland and Uwe Ampler from East Germany each won the race four times. Gustav-Adolf Schur, who won the race twice, was voted the most popular East German sportsman ever in 1989. After the end of the Cold War, the race lost its