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Next week the Giro d’Italia will start behind the former 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 evacuations would be required to restore at least the illusion of control. Meanwhile, a cover-up of unprecedented scale and unimaginable consequences began – and allowed the 1986 Peace Race to start in Kyiv.

In the first of this two-part series, Daniel Friebe journeys back in time to the moment of the disaster. He speaks to men who were supposed to travel to Kyiv and didn’t, and to riders who had no option but to race while a vast radioactive cloud spread across Europe and beyond.

Part two will cover what happened when the Peace Race peloton left Kyiv, and over subsequent months and years, as the horrific implications of Chernobyl slowly revealed themselves. That will be released on Wednesday May 6, the day before we travel to Bulgaria to kick off this year’s Girovagando - our daily coverage from the Giro d’Italia.

Meltdown: The Race to Escape Nuclear Disaster is a series written and produced by Daniel Friebe. Episode art is by Daniel Friebe.

Get the waffle-o-meter out for one last time as Rose Manley and Lizzy Banks react to the the final Spring Classic of 2026, Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes.

With the Ardennes Classics providing both surprise winners and familiar champions so far this season, which way will this tenth edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège go? Could breakout star Paula Blasi go for victory once more this week? Might Demi Vollering make it a record-breaking third title at the race? Or could Kasia Niewiadoma finally take the top step after a season littered with podiums?

Also on the agenda: a picnic’s worth of puns and Preston Bus Station… obviously.