The first starting signal for the fifth edition of the European Peace Ride (EPR ) will be given on 8 September 2025 in Chemnitz's European partner city, Nova Gorica. A 20-strong team will set off in the morning from Slovenia in the direction of Passau, where the European Peace Ride 2025 will officially begin on Thursday, 11 September.
The idea for the European Peace Ride laid the foundation for Chemnitz 2025. The cyclists starting in Nova Gorica today brought the application book for the European Capital of Culture to Berlin by bike in 2020 and brought the title to Chemnitz. From Nova Gorica, they will also make a stage stop in the Austrian town of Bad Ischl, the European Capital of Culture 2024.
The European Peace Ride is one of the major Europe-connecting projects in the Capital of Culture programme. The cycling event is historically rooted in the tradition of the former International Peace Ride, an amateur cycling event that was founded in 1948 by two journalists in Poland and the former Czechoslovakia. Until the last edition in 2006, the International Peace Ride was regarded as the most important cycling event in Europe behind the Iron Curtain. First held in 1952 between Prague, Warsaw and Berlin, the International Peace Ride travelled across Eastern Europe every year, using Chemnitz - Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953-1990 - as a stage location several times. in 2021, the first edition of the European Peace Ride took place as a transnational cultural and sporting social project of Chemnitz 2025.
This year, the cycling event brings together over 200 athletes from all over Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Brazil, Slovenia, Italy and Austria and is also a symbol of European cooperation on many levels. The ride covers a total of 510 kilometres over 6500 metres in altitude from Passau to Chemnitz in three days and ends there on Saturday, 13 September at the Jutta Müller Ice Sports Centre with a big saddle party.
Stage stops will be in the Czech cities of Plzeň (European Capital of Culture 2015) and Ústí nad Labem, where the riders will be joined by local people to celebrate with an extensive musical programme. In recent years, the European Peace Ride has travelled through both the Czech Republic and Poland, meaning that strong partnerships have now developed in both countries. On 11 September, for example, 50 riders will start at the same time as the main group in Passau in Poland, in the Lower Silesian town of Walbrzych, and will meet up with the large peloton in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic. With the cross-border route and the meetings at the stage locations, the international riders are setting an example for cross-border cooperation in an open Europe.
Once again this year, the cyclists will be accompanied by representatives from companies, universities and other institutions from Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, who will meet up with local partner organisations in Passau and Ústí nad Labem for talks and networking events.