Meltdown: The Race to Escape Nuclear Disaster | Part 2: Zone of Alienation
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This episode covers the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the 1986 Peace Race and the historical context of cycling in Eastern Europe.
This episode of KM0 by The Cycling Podcast is available for everyone to listen to for a limited time before it moves across to our Friends of the Podcast feed shortly. If you enjoy it, and are not already a Friend, consider subscribing annually or monthly to support The Cycling Podcast. The support of our Friends of the Podcast subscribers enables us to deliver our weekly and daily Grand Tour coverage free for all. Sign up at thecyclingpodcast.com This week the Giro d’Italia will start behind the old Iron Curtain for the third time in five years, specifically in Bulgaria. For Italians, the Giro has always represented the sporting highlight of May – but for those living in Eastern Europe, for half a century, the Peace Race took centre stage. The 1986 edition was an unforgettable one, for reasons that had nothing to do with cycling. Ten days before the race was due to start in Kyiv, 90 kilometres from there, at the Chernobyl power plant, there was an explosion in one of the reactors. The ensuing catastrophe turned into the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power. Hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers and hundreds of thousands of…
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