April 25

Arrive Brussel International Airport

We will pick you up at the airport and will assist you with your luggage to our vehicle. It’s about 90 minutes drive to our hotel in the Ardennes where we will spend the next 5 nights. Our mechanic will to assemble your bike and we will get a short easy spin in on the bike in the afternoon. In the evening we will have Welcome Dinner is provided at the dining room of the hotel. There, the coaches and Tour leaders will explain the whole itinerary and program of the following five days. This is a good occasion to ask any questions you might have but of course also to meet the people who you will be spending your holiday with.

April 26

Today’s ride will include part of the hilly course of the Flèche Wallone which includes an extreme grade of about 20% on the final climb of the "Mur de Huy" (i.e. the wall of Huy). We will start our ride on top of the "Mur de Huy" for the final of the race. Coffee stop at ‘MUR’ coffee & cycling café. A loop with several climbs is awaiting us.

Afterwards we'll visit the Spa-Francorchamps Racetrack Museum. The Museum, located in Abbey’s magnificent vaulted cellars, retraces the prestigious history of the track. Original visual documents, educational panels and a continually renewed presentation of exceptional vehicles retrace the passion of the competition, from the pioneers to the present day: Ferrari, March, Chevron, Porsche, Cooper …

April 27

This is the This is the granddaddy of all CyclosSportivos/Gran Fondos.  We will ride nearly every kilometer of the same course as the pros. This means you will ride 249kms (150miles) with over 17,000 feet of climbing!  Not for the weak hearted. It is a very beautiful route but also the most difficult with non-stop climbs of 1-4miles on steep grades. Today your legs will experience the toughest ‘côtes’ (French for hills) and the beautiful landscapes in the Belgian Ardennes. Climbs include the Cote de la Redoute and Cote de Sainte-Nicolas.  

April 28

Liege-Bastongne-Liege or known as“La Doyenne” oldest classic, 1892 was the first year of L-B-L

Today we’ll go to the start of the race at the Place Saint Lambert in wonderful Liège. After the start, we will view the race at multiple key locations on the course and enjoy the appreciate the suffering of the pro riders during the hardest classic of the season.

Brief history of Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in French often called ‘La Doyenne’ (‘the oldest’), is one of the five 'Monuments' of the European professional road cycling calendar. Liège-Bastogne-Liège is part of the UCI World Calendar and is part of the Belgian Ardennes Classics series, which also include the Flèche Wallonne. Both are organised by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). At one time, the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège were run on successive days as le Week-end Ardennais. Only seven riders have achieved the Ardennes double by winning both races in the same year: the Swiss Ferdi Kübler even twice (in 1951 and 1952), Belgians Stan Ockers (1955), Eddy Merckx (1972) and Philippe Gilbert (2011), Italians Moreno Argentin (1991) and Davide Rebellin (2004) and the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde who repeated this in three different years (2006, 2015 and 2017). The race has become renowned not just because of its very selective course but also because several editions have been affected by extremely tough weather conditions. The 1980 edition is memorable because of snow that besieged the race from the start and was referred to as neige-Bastogne-neige (snow-Bastogne-snow) by commentators. Bernard Hinault attacked with 80 km to go and finished nearly 10 minutes ahead of the second in the race.

April 29

We will enjoy a 2hr ride  from la Roche-en-Ardenne to Bastogne and end in Achouffe for some beer tasting. The region around la Roche is often referred to as the true Ardennes. La Roche also holds the hardest climb of Belgium (N° 1 according to the Cotacol guide), Col de Haussire.

The region known as ‘the Ardennes’ was once witness of some of the hardest fighting during the second world war known as the ‘Battle of the Ardennes’ or ‘Battle of the Bulge’. 2019 celebrates the 75th anniversary of this fierce key battle of world war II. Still today memorials, statues, crosses, burial grounds are silent reminders of the great sacrifices for peace. The Bastogne Memorial Museum is a must-see. After our beer tasting we will visit the museum that offers a modern memorial center and interactive context of the causes, events and consequences of the Second World War through the prism of the Battle of the Bulge.

April 30

Departure from Brussel International Airport.  We will transport you from the hotel to the airport Goodbye from Belgium. This unforgettable trip comes to an end and we head our separate ways.