The Circuit des Champs de Bataille was a multiple-stage road bicycle race held in northern France, Belgium and Luxembourg between 28 April and 11 May 1919.
Although Europe was in the midst of reconstruction and then at the height of the deadly flu pandemic, the Petit Journal's 8,500 franc purse, the equivalent of four years' wages for a typical working man, guaranteed that the race would attract top talent.
Le Petit Journal reported on "terrible weather, broken roads, freezing wind and icy conditions".
[2] As a result of shortages caused by the war, the competitors also had to deal with poor supplies of food and poor-quality tires.
Newspapers including Le Petit Journal and L'Auto did not see the difficulties of the event as evidence of the state of post-war France, but rather celebrated the race's competitors as "heroic survivors" who symbolised national revival; some 67 professional French cyclists were known to have died during the conflict.