"La Doyenne"
Tracing the Liège-Bastogne- Liège Course
May 29, 1999

Distance: 115 miles/185 kilometers
Elevation: 7,040 feet/2,145 meters
Difficulty: 8/10
Scenery: 7/10;
Route: Liège-Sprimont-Aywaille-Remouchamps-Tergnon-Lierneux-
Baraque de Fraiture-Montleban-Bovigny-Vielsalm-Trois Ponts-
Wanne-Stavelot-La Gleize-Stoumont-Lorce-Aywaille-
Reouchamps-Florzè-Sprimont-Embourg-Liège

The Liège-Bastogne-Liège, affectionately called "La Doyenne," was first staged in 1892, and is the oldest and most prestigious of all the spring classics.

My objective for the day was to follow the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (LBL) parcours as much as I can. This particular race has always held a strong fascination for me. The men’s pro edition is held in mid-April, when temperatures are still a bit on the nippy side. The 1999 edition of the LBL was won by Franck Vandebroucke of Cofidis after dropping Michele Bartoli on the Redoute climb and then powering past Michael Boogerd on the final climb up the Côte de Saint-Nicholas to win 30 seconds clear.

The amateur version, the Tilff-Bastogne-Tilff (the "TBT"), is an annual ride held every Whit Sunday on a slightly shorter course. The 1999 TBT was in fact held just a week before my ride—a helpful coincidence because I was able to follow the TBT road markings for the second half of the course.

The professional edition is a whopping 265 kilometers (165 miles) long, a distance that’s well beyond my endurance capacity at the moment, so riding the entire LBL course was out of the question. As hard as it was to decide to bypass Bastogne (the town, after all, is the turnaround point for the race), I had no choice as missing it was the only way I could shorten the course by 50 or so miles and still not miss the legendary climbs for which the race had been famous. My plan was to follow the pro course as far south as Houffalize, and then cut east and rejoin the route just before Vielsalm. From what I knew of the race, many of the climbs were in the last quarter of the course anyway. Thus I felt that my planned route was a reasonable compromise and would give me a good "taste" of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The climbs of LBL (italicized ones were the ones I didn't climb):

1. Côte Saint-Roch (1.5 km @7.4%)
2. Côte de Wanne (2.9 km @4.8%)
3. Côte de Stockeu (2.7 km @8.9%)
4. Côte de Wanneranval (1.6 km @9.4%)
5. Côte du Rosier (4 km @5.9%)
6. Côte de Lorce (4.4 km @5.5%)
7. Côte de la Redoute (2.2 km @8.3%)
8. Côte de Sprimont (1.6 km @3.1%)
9. Côte du Sart-Tilman (3.6 km @5.4%)
10. Côte de Saint-Nicholas (1.4 km@7.5%)

(Profile of the 1999 Liège-Bastogne-Liège parcours, taken from the official site)

I started out in central Liège. Despite the LBL, Liège is not a very cycling-friendly city. Except for a 3-square block area that’s closed off to motor traffic, in Liège car is king. After riding several nerve-wracking kilometers getting out of the city, I found the N30 at Embourg, a suburb of Liège to the southeast.

A made a left turn out of a busy intersection in Embourg into an uphill shaded road that climbed steadily for several hundred feet from Embourg to Beaufays. After the harried maneouvers through the busy roads of Liège, I welcomed the change of pace this stretch provided. Although the N30 at this point was still within the Liège urban sprawl, traffic was considerably thinner 5 miles out of the city.

(Below: The first miles of the ride on the N30 near Chaudfontaine)

I pretty much followed the N30 for several miles south to Sprimont where a short, straight, descent on the Côte de Sprimont was followed by a rather sharp climb and a longer drop to Aywaille. I picked up the N633 going east to Remouchamps and stayed on this road as it went through a rather pretty forestland of oak, birch and maple as well as different varieties of ferns. The N633 paralleled the course of the Amblève, a shallow river whose soothing sound this bright Saturday morning contributed much to the pleasantness of the riding.

(Above: A typical road in the Belgian Ardennes)

Though its profile suggested uphill, the road at this point felt fairly level, interrupted every now and then by mild climbs that gave me opportunities to get off the saddle and to stretch my legs. I also met several groups of club riders out on their weekly rides. Like the Italians, the Belgians seem to prefer those cotton cycling caps over the more protective styrofoam helmets, unquestionably for their aesthetic looks rather than functional or safety considerations. They must have thought me very uncool wearing a helmet on my head. The Europeans are also very much into wearing replicas of their favorite pro teams, more so than the Americans and much more so than the conservative English. I got a chuckle later as I met up with a couple of riders—one in the pink and white of Team Deutsche Telekom, the other in the yellowish-beige jersey of Team Mercatone Uno. I guess only in cycling-obsessed Belgium can one see Tour de France "rivals" out together on a training ride!

(Above: The scenic, flat stretches of the N645)

As I rode deeper and deeper into the Ardennes, the landscape got progressively more scenic, and the air redolent of grass. Or leaves. Or something I know not what, except that it smelled very country-ish. I liked it. Yellow wildflowers were out profusely on the hillsides. I didn’t recognize them though they appeared to be of either the buttercup or poppy family.

(Above: Wildflower-carpeted hill along the N645)

Last Updated: June 13, 1999