Stage 7: Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt) - Bautzen, 173km
After our trip into the mountains yesterday, we're back on firmer DDR footing today, with a hilly stage including some cobbles and some tough rouleur terrain. In fact, we're perhaps on the firmest DDR terrain we could possibly get, as we're setting off from Chemnitz, a city that in fact spent the whole era under the SED under the name of Karl-Marx-Stadt, after the philosopher whose theories underpinned (at least supposedly) the regime's entire raison d'être. Taking its name from Sorbian, after the Slavic ethnic group that populate this corner of Germany (more so the end of the stage than the start however, as their lands have vastly shrunken and assimilation has taken place at a rapid rate in the last 200 years leaving the Sorbs fighting to protect their culture, language and history), the city has reflections in the Czech and Polish "Kamenice", a popular place name throughout the West Slavic-speaking countries. Chemnitz also has a strong connection to the DDR in that, amongst major cities in the former East, this is where you want to go for a true taste of what East Germany looked like; with most of the city centre having been destroyed in the war, the city was rebuilt ostensibly in model socialist fashion, although with the urgency with which new housing was required, many old buildings fell into disrepair and were replaced by Socialist concrete Plattenbau apartments. Although the old name was restored and a section of the centre was redesigned and redeveloped after 1990, for historical cultural reasons the 7m, 40-tonne Karl-Marx-Monument, a stylized head in front of an enormous text immortalizing his words built into the surrounding buildings, remains, and it is from here that the riders will set off. For ideological reasons, the honouring of Marx was a major thing for the organizers of both the Peace Race and the DDR-Rundfahrt, and therefore both races regularly travelled through the city as well as it being the nominal host of the Sachsenring World Championships.
The first part of the stage is rolling, although I could feasibly have categorized the 4% or so rise into Oederan as we head into and out of the valleys carved by rivers descending from the Erzgebirge. The most notable stop-off in this first third of the stage is Freiberg im Sachsen, a formerly important mining town of 40.000 where the first intermediate sprint will take place. The second comes after a short and relatively inconsequential cat.3 climb, in the Saxon state capital and largest city, one of Germany's most historic and cultural metropoles. Although it has been a cultural centre for the German nation for centuries, its most famous history is its most recent, when in 1945 it was razed to the ground by Allied bombing efforts over a three day period marked to this day; it also allegedly served as the inspiration behind Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" as he was a prisoner of war held during the raid.
During the Soviet occupation and subsequent DDR period, those classic buildings that were saveable were restored, but some in worse states were razed. Large parts of the city were rebuilt in the socialist modern style, although since reunification to a large extent other areas have been restored and much of the socialist buildings are confined to the Neustadt north of the river and to outlying suburbs. However, the city centre presence of the socialist era Kulturpalast in the middle of all these beautiful restored historic buildings still stands out.
After this, we have two serious climbs, which although far from the finish will hopefully enable a selection to be made and tell us at least who is likely to be playing for the win. The first, Löschwitzer Berg, is immediately outside the city and features some horrible gradients of up to 19% on some rough and unforgiving cobbles on the first part of the ascent (Calberlastraße). The profile is similar to
this one however by using Calberlastraße the first part is more consistent with the steep ramps - from the 800m mark onward it is the same, however. After the steepest section it is on tarmac, and the steep part on Robert-Diez-Straße is on manageable cobbles, but the first 500m are on some pretty nasty ones.
Following on from this, after a brief ride along a ridge and then a descent (which includes some cobbles but none that are complex enough to cause any problems - well managed city-type ones), we take on another famous DDR ascent, the Borsberg. It's
also largely cobbled, rough but not too inconsistent,and measures 2,7km at 7,9% including
ramps of 20%. It featured in a bizarre Peace Race split stage back in 1971, when the riders did a 33km flat TT from Bischofswerda to Dresden in the morning, then a separate 3km "mountain" time trial in the afternoon on the Borsberg, with the best time over the two combined time trials gaining the stage win. Therefore, while the USSR's Anatoly Starkov set the best time on the Borsberg (completing it in 5'19), he only narrowly pipped Ryszard Szurkowski, the legendary Pole sometimes nicknamed the Communist Cannibal for his Merckx-like domination, who had won the longer TT and therefore took the stage.
After this, however, things ease off, with a large period of slightly downhill flat, followed by another uphill before we return to the kind of terrain we started on, rolling and in-and-out-of-valleys. It will be hard to get into a real rhythm here, so although the next couple of climbs are on tarmac and nothing like as hard as Löschwitz or Borsberg, the chances of the race being broken up are positive. There's also the prospect of bonus seconds in the town of Neustadt in Sachsen, 43km from the line and immediately before the penultimate categorized climb, the
Valtenberg which is the highest point in the Lausitzer Bergland, for we have moved outside of the Erzgebirge foothills and into the edges of the Lausitz region, also known as the Sorbengebiet after the Sorbian people that inhabit it. The further into the hilly south of the region the stronger the Sorbian identity; trains and buses make announcements in both German and Upper Sorbian, place names are noted in both languages and attempts are being made to preserve this language, now only spoken by around 60.000 people. These centre around today's stage town of Bautzen (Budyšin in its native tongue), which I have used in previous races for a similar reason.
Before we get to Bautzen, however, we have the final categorized climb of the race, a short but tough grind to Mönchswalder Berg, a sharp rise to an observation tower on a ridge overlooking the Sorbian capital.
The official stats are 1,8km @ 8.9% (or 2km @ 8% on Quäl dich which includes some false flat beforehand) but with the last bit being slightly flattened out
as you can see from the profile this will be a good one for any puncheurs who've fought on after the cobbles - 300m averaging 18% near the end there will create some real agony. With this cresting just 15km from the line you can envisage a fast chase to the finish for those left behind on those steep ramps, as we charge down into Bautzen. This time, however, although we do pass the Domowina,
Serbski Dom and the Sorbian theatre, unlike in the Lausitz Rundfahrt or the Deutschlandrundfahrt stages I placed in the town, there's no use of the historic centre of Bautzen and the cobbled drag Unterm Schloß. Instead, we're heading to a rather less glamorous location that the city is known for: the "Yellow Misery" (Gelbes Elend) - Bautzen I.
This prison was opened in 1904 as the most modern in the German Reich, and went on to be passed down from regime to regime, before settling on a role as the "Speziallager" for the Soviet occupiers during the period of denazification, likely chosen particularly for the role it played for the Nazis, with many prominent members of the SPD and KPD who went on to form the SED in East Germany having been incarcerated there. When this period was declared over, the SED took over the administration of the prison and it became notorious as the prison where the state opposition "most resistant to self-betterment" were housed, and frequently cross-examined or tortured by the Stasi. Like with Gefängnis Leistikowstraße we ought to acknowledge the DDR for what it was - and this should include the inhumanity and misery. It is a shame that Budyšin should host such a place; it is otherwise a beautiful city and while in the city itself the Sorbian minority only constitutes around 10% the populace, in the surrounding towns and villages they are much larger in number and the city has become a rallying point for the minority. However, this is a Rundfahrt der Ostalgie, and we must remember the role that this attractive and culturally rich city played in the uglier face of 20th century communism.
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