Liverpool’s legendary ex-manager Bill Shankly once described football as more important than life and death, and some cycling fans will certainly attest to those sentiments when it comes to their own sport.

The Race Against the Stasi, however, tells the true story of when professional cycling went quite literally above and beyond the confines of mere sport through the astonishing tale of Dieter Wiedemann.

A hero of East German sport, Wiedemann was paraded as the poster boy for socialism’s sporting success – despite, unknown to the authorities, abhorring the very ideology.

In 1964, Wiedemann seized the opportunity to escape, defecting while in West Germany and creating a huge scandal as he went on to fulfil his dream of racing in the Tour de France.

The book tells Wiedemann’s story through his own testimony and that of his contemporaries, along with the Stasi’s own file.