Notes
Ride from the very start of the front line during World War One on the Belgian coast at Nieuwpoort down to the Ypres (locally known as Ieper). This flat ride starts early in the morning with the rising sun behind the port. The route takes you along the cycleways next to the rivers Ijzer past the Belgian Trench of Death which is now a museum, past Diksmuide & down the Ieperlee canal to finish under the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) which has the names of 56,000 soldiers that died locally that had no known grave.
This ride follows a river & a canal almost due south, the Germans held the eastern bank (your left while riding) for the most part until close to Ieper where the allies had pushed the Garmans back further east into a sailent. Unfortunately for the allies this salient was all mainly the only high ground where they could pound the city into rubble. Some of the bloodiest battles of the war such as Passendale are just a few miles away from the end of this ride.