A rare 1976 team service ID badge from the 1976 Peace race around 40 years ago.
The badge is made from a gold coloured metal and the badge face is 4cm in diameter and it has a safety pin clasp style fastener to the rear.
The height of the badge including the ribbon section and service tag is 6cm. It is from the 29th annual peace race, held in 1964 between Prague, Warsaw and Berlin, often abbreviated to PWB or WBP or even BPW depending on who got to host the first and final stages of the race.
The text on the badge reads '29th Course de la Paix (Peace Race) PWB 1976'.
Historical Background.
The Course de la Paix, Warsaw-Berlin-Prague (WBP) or Zavod Miru depending on your language was the most prestigious cycling event during the communist era.
The Peace Race (Zavod Miru in Czech, Friedensfahrt in German and Wycig Pokoju in Polish) was a cycling event held in May that consisted of 10 stages over 10 days. The course encompassed East Germany, Poland and former Czechoslovakia and was open to all the members of the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact countries and cyclists from the West.
The first Peace Race was held in 1948, when there was a race connecting the cities of Warsaw and Prague, the route would develop in 1952 to include Berlin and each badge usually depicts the initials WBP in varied orders, meaning Warsaw, Berlin and Prague. The order of the initials WPB denoted were the race would start and finish, it was customary for the countries to take it in turns to host the finish line. Recently other European cities have been included in the stages to broaden the appeal of the race.
During the Cold War the Peace Race was known as the 'Tour de France of the East' as Eastern Europeans were not allowed to leave the Eastern Bloc to participate in the actual Tour de France. As Eastern European cyclists were not allowed to compete professionally, i.e. for money, it was an amateur race. It attracted the best cyclists from the communist countries, plus guest teams from the West. Communist-bloc riders tended to dominate the event, but there were exceptions, the Briton Ian Steel won the 1952 race.
In 2006, the 58th race took place in May. It started in Austria's Linz and via The Czech Republic headed to Germany where it ended in Hannover.
