Über die Felder is the second cycling book penned by Max Marquardt. "Auf Asphalt", his first book, was published in spring 2022 and is all about the racing bike lifestyle, with personal stories, background information, tips, impressive racing bike routes and much more. His new book combines modern gravel biking with contemporary history, the First World War and the time afterwards. It takes you into a world of culinary delights, it reminds you, arouses curiosity and gratitude.
Author Max Marquardt set off on a gravel bike - well, an all-road bike to be precise - on the trail of what is probably the toughest, most merciless and ruthless cycle race in human history: the Tour of the Battlefields. Along the way, he experiences the culinary delights of the region, meets people, marvels at nature and allows humility to prevail, caused by the close links between the tour and the First World War. In the book, he also provides historical insights into the stages of the Tour of the Battlefields and the times.
The stage descriptions are peppered with tips, culinary highlights and historical insights. It is not intended to be a classic tour book. The aim is to arouse the reader's curiosity. Curiosity to explore unknown regions, curiosity to delve into the history of Europe.
During a lunch break, I talk to the author about his book.
The idea for the book ...
... came to Max Marquardt during a holiday in Alsace. Like most racing cyclists, he brought his bike with him on holiday. His research began in his hotel room in the evening. Are there any exciting historical cycle routes in the region? The first hits were, of course, various Tour de France stages or the Tour Alsace. In the depths of the internet, he finally came across the 1919 Battlefields Tour, a stage race through the battlefields of the First World War. The tour, in which only 11 of the almost 90 starters reached the finish line, took place once and never again.
Even before I got home, I knew I was going to write a book about it. - Max Marquardt
The Battlefields Tour 1919
The Schlachtfelder-Rundfahrt was a cycling stage race that took place in 1919 - just six months after the end of the First World War. There were no peace treaties yet. The route ran anti-clockwise from Strasbourg to Strasbourg and passed over the battlefields of the First World War.
The macabre ride was initiated by the newspaper Le Petit Journal, which had fallen into difficulties and wanted to increase its circulation through the race. The race was intended to offer readers a spectacle, a kind of modern gladiator fight. As Marquardt explains, the newspaper sent these "poor bastards - you just have to put it that way" across all the main battle lines of the First World War, i.e. through the most horrific combat zones that existed. The route led along non-existent roads through villages that only existed on maps.
The stages were between 290 and 320 kilometres long, the roads back then were not comparable to those of today, and the same applies to the bikes. During the stages, the riders were on their own, today it would be called "self-supported". Neither help from each other nor help from outside was permitted.
The route today
The route from back then can no longer be travelled 1:1 by bike today. Some sections of the route are now motorways. "I stuck to the original route as best I could," he reports. His routes are available via a link in the book. At the same time, Marquardt recommends that those planning a trip to the regions should use the routes as a guide, but not as a set route. It is better to put together your own route and also look to the left and right, for example using the cloverleaf principle, where you spend several days in one place and explore the surroundings in all directions.
The author himself was on an all-road bike and had a few coarser tyres and a few road tyres with him. On some sections, a gravel bike with wider tyres would have been the better choice. Whether gravel bike, all-road bike or road bike - the choice is up to the reader. If you want to ride the entire route in bikepacking mode, you should choose a gravel bike, the author recommends. "I reached the limits of my all-road bike on some passages."
Time jump
The book has three storylines: the 1919 race, the First World War, which you can't avoid because of the connection between the race and the war, and the present day. "In the present, I talk about what it's like in today's regions," he says, raving about food and champagne and wine tastings.
"My intention with the book is to emphasise the privilege we have a little more. In other words, that we have the opportunity to be able and allowed to cycle in regions where our grandfathers once banged their heads," explains the author. "How nice it is that we can all get to grips with a beautiful thing, with cycling or with good food or with our cultural idiosyncrasies instead of shooting at each other. Peace is a very fragile framework, as we can also see in Ukraine. And although the book is absolutely apolitical and non-ideological, it was important for me to remind people of this."
Two messages
- The privilege of honouring and remembering cycling.
- Enjoying life, cycling, eating well and drinking well.
Anecdotes, insights and autographs
To mark the first publication of "Über die Felder", a release party will be held at the Rapha Clubhouse Munich (Frauenstraße 8) on 13 September 2024 from 6.00 pm. There will be a reading by the author with snacks and drinks, enriched with many anecdotes and the presentation of partly unpublished images. Afterwards there will be a book signing.
Further dates, for example in Stuttgart and other cities, will follow.
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Sandra Schuberth
Editor
