[tomisitt]

I stumbled across a long-forgotten bicycle race a while back — the Circuit des Champs de Bataille — which was held in 1919 and raced across the battlefields of the Western Front only five months after the end of the war. I wrote a short piece about this extraordinary race here, which some of you might find interesting (there was a longer piece in Rouleur 44):

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/apr/08/circuit-champs-bataille-tale-toughest-cycle-race-ever

I am now embarking on a four-week tour, following the route of the race on my bike for a book I am writing about the 1919 race and the battlefields, and I will be visiting Ypres, Lille, Cambrai, the Somme, St Quentin, Chemin des Dames, the Marne, Champagne, Argonne, Verdun and St Mihiel in a 2000km ride round France and Belgium. And I’ll be doing it on my titanium road bike with lightweight Apidura kit to keep luggage weight down to <7kg.

If you’re interested, you can follow my progress here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bikesandbattlefields/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomisitt/

On Twitter: @masaccio60

 

Cheers

Topic

[StraelGuy]

Fascinating article. ‘Tough’

Fascinating article. ‘Tough’ is barely an adequate word for that race . I’ll follow your progress with interest.

[Author]

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