Tour of the battlefields - the most heroic cycling race ever
Karel Van Wijnendale once wrote: ‘Never, in the memory of mankind, was a race harder and more gruesome; never did it work more murderous on the mind, the bodily disposition of a cyclist.’
Written on Sunday, 11 May 1919: the Belgian Charles Deruyter has just won the first - and will prove later - the only edition of the Omloop van de Slagvelden (Tour of the Battlefields).
On 19 December 1918, the Paris newspaper “le Petit Journal” announced a heroic cycling race along the battlefields of the Western Front, a 1985-kilometre route, executed in 7 stages, spread over 14 days.
The newspaper wanted to pay tribute to the ‘glorious episodes from the Great War and to the numerous soldiers who had fought for victory’. The route originated in Strasbourg and then via Luxembourg, Brussels, Amiens, Paris, Bar-Le-Duc and Belfort back to Strasbourg again.
