"Täve" Schur (a shortening of Gustav-Adolf) grew up near Magdeburg. He only took up cycling aged 19 and won the highest honors an amateur cyclist could reach. Schur won the East German championships 6 times in that period and won the GDR tour 4 times. In 1953 he had a great stake in East Germany winning the blue jersey of the best team at the Peace Race. His real breakthrough came in 1955, however, when he was the first East German to win the Peace Race, considered the most prestigious amateur stage race. Schur won the Peace Race once more in 1959. As a member of the
United Team of Germany he won a bronze medal in the team time trial at the
1956 Summer Olympics in
Melbourne and a silver medal at the
1960 Summer Olympics in
Rome, at a time when the impact East Germany would have in later Olympic Games was not foreseen yet. Between 1955 and 1963 Schur studied at the
DHfK Leipzig and finished with a diploma as coach. In late 1950s Schur was at the height of his form, as proven by his two wins at the amateur road race at the road world championships in 1958 and 1959, he was the first amateur to defend his title. He won the DDR Rundfahrt in 1953, 1954, 1959 and 1961. Schur reached the summit of his popularity by not winning, however: At the 1960
UCI Road World Championships that took place at the
Sachsenring, Schur was favorite to defend his title again, but instead he let his teammate
Bernhard Eckstein pass who eventually won the race. This selfless gesture capped Schur's myth, the dimensions of which can be sensed if one considers the results of a survey conducted after the end of
East Germany: here Schur was voted greatest East German sports personality of all time, 25 years after ending his career. Schur was selected as
East-German Sportspersonality of the Year nine times in a row from 1953 to 1961. His son
Jan (born 1962) won an Olympic gold medal in the team trial at the
1988 Summer Olympics, together with
Uwe Ampler,
Mario Kummer and
Maik Landsmann. Schur was more deeply involved politically than other sports people in East Germany. Between 1958 and 1990 he was a member of the
Volkskammer. After
German reunification he kept to his views and joined the
SED successor party
PDS and was a member of
Germany's parliament,
Bundestag, between 1998 and 2002. Schur is also a member of the "Kuratorium Friedensfahrt Course de la Paix e.V.". In 1992 Schur opened a bicycle store in Magdeburg that is now run by his other son Gus-Erik Schur. "Täves Radladen" supports the bicycle racing club "RC Lostau" and takes part in races all over Europe under the name "Team Täves Radladen". In May 2012 Schur re-rode two stages of the 1955
Peace Race, as part of the Alf Buttler Peace Race Tribute Ride. == Honors ==