Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Flèche Wallonne

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The Spring Classics: Cycling’s Greatest One-Day Races

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PHOTO EDITORS First published in France as Belles d’un jour, histoire des grandes classiques, copyright Grégoire Dubreuil, Philippe Evain, Virginie Hadri, Philippe Le Men, © 2007 L’Équipe. Clara Martin, Christian Naitslimane, François Samson, Christian Vail, Anne-Laure Vallet, Alain Vignotte, Cyril Vuilly All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or photocopy or otherwise, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quota- Department head tions within critical articles and reviews. Danièle Cussot With Thierry Dangerma (assistant department head), Dominique Bartholomé, Maurice Broquet, Alain Hasse, Rodolphe Meunier

PHOTO EDITING AND CORRECTION Director 1830 55th Street Bruno Jeanjean Boulder, Colorado 80301-2700 USA 'BY BOOK MANUFACTURING E-mail [email protected] Director Lionel Planquart Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services With Guy Jouno, Patrick Pastor, Valérie Yarji LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Belles d’un jour. English. This work was created by the book division of L’Équipe & Co, under the direction of The spring classics: cycling’s greatest one-day races / text, Philippe Bouvet . . . [et al.]; Vincent Laudet translation, John Abt; additional text, Samuel Abt, John Wilcockson. With p. cm. Laurence Gauthier (book sales manager) ISBN 978-1-934030-60-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) Sandrine Matichard (marketing communications) 1. Bicycle racing—Europe—History. 2. Bicycle racing—Europe—History—Pictorial works. I. Bouvet, Philippe, 1955– II. Title. With the help of GV1049.B4513 2010 Daisy Froger-Droz (foreign rights) 796.6'2—dc22 2010019650 Page layout Tauros/Christophe Ibach Printed in Canada

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92 THE TOUR OF FLANDERS

Sample pages from The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races Copyright 2010 VeloPress All rights reserved The Tour of Flanders Each classic has its own character, but the Ronde van Vlaanderen is utterly unique. For the Belgians’ own Tour de France, the Koppenberg and Mur de Grammont are the Mont Ventoux and L’Alpe d’Huez of Flanders. It’s a race with an epic tale condensed into a single day.

Sample pages from The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races Copyright 2010 VeloPress All rights reserved previous page 1985 All the difficulties of the Ronde are concentrated in the Koppenberg, a terrifying, slippery, yet jagged climb. It’s not a cyclocross but a death trap. No matter their 1951 accomplishments elsewhere, Until 1948 only one foreigner most riders wind up in the had won here, the Swiss Heiri gutter, pushing the bike, or Suter in 1923. But then, three hoisting it over their shoulder. years in a row, a fearsome Italian This nasty hill first appeared on tamed the elements, the the course in 1976, was cobblestones, and even Briek removed in 1988, and made its Schotte, “the Last of the return in 2002. Flandrians.” With this third victory, Fiorenzo Magni is hailed as “the Lion of Flanders.” The Diabolical Ronde A sharp rain is falling like tiny razor blades from a flannel-grey sky have for almost a century provided an incredible playground for the that folds over the horizon. Only two tall smokestacks at the power sport’s most intrepid athletes. Since the first Tour of Flanders on May plant in Ruien, near the foot of the Old Kwaremont, help a white sun 25, 1913, when 37 riders set off from Ghent on a 324 km odyssey, the find a hole through the granite clouds. Ronde van Vlaanderen organizers have barely changed its scenario. As We’re on the course of the Tour of Flanders, walking to the sum- early as 1919, the route was laid out as it is today: a succession of mit of its most infamous cobblestone climb, the Koppenberg, which straight roads starting from Bruges or Ghent over 200 km of plains, is perhaps the best way of trying to understand why men come here to often including a brief diversion by the coast and its crosswinds, fol- suffer on their bikes. The humped road, at first more than 20 feet lowed by a hectic 100 km rodeo through a maze of twists and turns wide, narrows as it climbs and plows upward between two steep, that jump past green fields to hellacious cobblestone hills and back muddy, grassy banks lined with leafless trees, until it forms a fearsome again. Climbs only a few hundred meters long may seem innocent little trench only 10 feet across. Climbed by the riders in this Belgian enough to a layperson, but none of them is easy after five or six hours classic since 1976, the diabolical wall, 600 m in length, carved into of intense racing. what would be called a hill in any other country, has been the stage of Until the 1950s, the course scaled only a handful of bergs: the the race’s most dramatic moments. The “Torture Chamber” is one Kluisberg, Kwaremont, Kruisberg, and Edelare. Today, the number is of its most pertinent nicknames. generally around 15, with a record 19 climbs in 2003. The organizers To survive its dangers, riders must race furiously to reach its base are constantly seeking to spice up the race by discovering unused in the first wave of dirt-covered coureurs. The rest of the pack is often slopes or restructuring the course. In 2010, for instance, they blocked by those who have fallen or flatted and have to finish the switched the route around to make the steep, cobbled Molenberg the climb on foot, as it’s impossible to regain balance on the 22 percent day’s tenth climb instead of the first. incline without putting a foot to the ground. Their cleats slip on the The high points of the Tour of Flanders took little time to become wet cobblestones, and they reach the top with their bikes hoisted over legends considering they were rather late additions to the race’s menu. their shoulders, waddling like penguins on ice. The best teammates, Among them is the Kwaremont. This was originally a wide road of it’s said, sometimes help their team leaders make a break by regular cobblestones, edged by a gravel pathway, connecting Berchem intentionally slipping out of their pedals to create a gap in the line of and Renaix. The road lost its sporting edge in 1966 when it was paved riders, causing the pack of pursuers to collapse like a row of dominoes. with asphalt, but the organizers then discovered an older, parallel por- From the 262-foot summit, there’s an unobstructed view across tion of bumpy cobblestones rising between sloping fields: the Old the plain of Flanders, over the scarecrows keeping watch, almost to the Kwaremont. By tradition, this serpentine slice of road, just over 2 km North Sea and its bleak dunes, where the early kilometers of this classic long with a gradient that tops out at 11 percent, is the third or fourth are raced. The monotony of the flat, pastoral landscape is relieved here of the day’s climbs—but it is also the first real breaking point in the and there by ancient places of worship, red-brick church steeples and race. It has been featured on every single itinerary since its first cathedrals of dark stone pushing up grimly in the wan light. appearance in 1974. These lowlands are also blessed by a geological hallucination The second legend of the course has been less faithful. Rougher, known as the Flemish Ardennes, with their score of famed bergs more violent, more unjust, the Koppenberg has been taken off and (hills). These rises are scattered over an area measuring 30 km from put back on the course so frequently as to earn its modern nickname west to east (from Kluisbergen to Ninove) by 20 km from north to “VDB of the bergs,” in reference to Frank Vandenbroucke, a rider south (from Oudenaarde to Renaix). The farmworkers of yesteryear known for his phenomenal athletic gifts that occasionally shone never took the time to flatten these rolling hills; instead, they laid through at the Ronde (he finished 2nd in 1999 and 2003), but also cobblestone tracks up the steep sides, to give traction for horses and for his spectacular failures and his controversial clashes with sporting wood-wheeled carts. and civil authorities before his untimely death in 2009. Professional cycling’s best backdrops will always be the snow The Koppenberg was first used as a theater for cycling drama in peaks of the Alps and Pyrenees, but the little green bergs of Flanders 1976. It was scratched from the course eleven years later, following

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1913 1924 Paul Deman is only 24 when he With spare tires looped over his takes the first winner’s bouquet shoulders and a smile on his face, on May 25, 1913. He will win future master of the six-day track- Bordeaux-Paris the following year racing circuit Gérard Debaets and then act as a spy in World celebrates his first Flanders win. War I, delivering documents into He will repeat in 1927 as the first neutral Dutch territory. double champion.

the 1987 edition, when the rider leading the race, Jesper Skibby of Boonen looked up in surprise to see Swiss superstar Fabian Cancellara Denmark, fell across the treacherous track and a following race offi- riding away in 2010, from where he powered to a solo finish with 1:15 cial’s car flattened his bike and just missed driving over his legs. That to spare. was more than enough to energize the Koppenberg’s detractors in The Bosberg, located 12 km from the present-day finish line in their campaign to banish the monster. The image of a sprawled the Ninove suburb of Meerbeke, is almost 1 km long, paved in asphalt Skibby served as a violent reminder of a series of cruel scenes in which for its first half and cobblestones for its second. Though not especially the rugged climb’s opponents saw only a monument to the sport’s difficult, and less cruel than others with its average grade of less than 6 blind injustice, a monstrosity as dangerous to the race as to the riders. percent (with an 11 percent maximum), it has been the launching pad Its defenders argue that a Ronde featuring the Koppenberg for many Ronde winners. So much so that this climb bestowed a requires greater know-how, strength, and courage on the part of the nickname, Eddy Bosberg, on two-time Belgian winner Edwig Van competitors. Only those who approach it in the lead make it to the Hooydonck (1989 and 1991), who carved out both of his victories on top on their bikes; the others are often left on foot. Bernard Hinault these last few cobblestones. referred to the Koppenberg with the same kind words he usually saved If each of these bergs has its own identity, none of them can claim for the Arenberg trench in Paris-Roubaix: a “circus” or “pig trough.” to single-handedly summarize the Tour of Flanders, in the same way The Koppenberg does indeed raise regular debates about its dan- that neither the Ventoux nor L’Alpe d’Huez epitomizes the Tour de gers. And, like the nastiest stretch of Roubaix cobblestones, it was France. It is the daisy-chaining of these Flemish hills around a maze of reintroduced to the race in 2002. It took a $500,000 facelift, with five muddy paths that constitutes the real difficulty of the Ronde. years of labor and some newly hewn cobblestones from Poland, to Practically everything remains to be done at the foot of each climb. reunite the Koppenberg with the Ronde. Talk remains of an under- On the approach, the peloton accelerates neurotically, knowing that ground spring that emerges halfway up and makes the cobblestones only the first 20 riders will start the climb in ideal conditions. The uneven, or the rain that makes them impossibly slick. But the most race will not be won here, but it may well be lost. “The Ronde is a fatalistic observers view this as a false problem; even when the course whole,” said Peter Van Petegem, the winner in 1999 and 2003, “not a is dry, most of the pack hoof it. single berg.” To the joys of geology must be added those of the roadways. A great number of hills, the hardest of them, are made of cobblestones. Bumps and Bad Weather In 1913, the cobblestones covered a generous third of the course and did not appear to constitute one of its crucial elements. In fact, to Another postwar legend is the Mur de Grammont (also called the avoid the stones, the racers often chose to ride on the roads’ dirt Muur van Geraardsbergen), which has been used in the Ronde since shoulders. Then, after World War II, the cobbles disappeared in less 1950. It was originally a cobbled street climbing through the city, but time than it takes to say “paving.” that section was paved over in the late 1950s. As a dessert, the The organizers soon realized that the long stretches of asphalt organizers in 1981 added the Kapelmuur, a curving, 1 km–long, wall- would quickly kill the race and set about looking for alternate routes. like hill leading to a chapel above the town, much of it composed of While searching for these, they found many of the hidden bergs, with vicious cobblestones. Vitally, the Muur comes at the culmination of a their roads usable but untouched by the modernization affecting the long day. If the pack has not yet been broken into enough pieces to highways. Gradually, the second part of the Tour of Flanders became unleash a group of contenders for the win, the Muur takes care of concentrated in the Flemish Ardennes. business, before the final climb, the Bosberg, effects the ultimate The original cobblestone was made from spotted, grey porphyry, selection. Even the strongest suffer on the Muur, for it was on its a regional rock extracted from the quarries of Lessines and Quenast— slopes that Belgian classics specialist and two-time Ronde winner Tom the same ones that also paved the streets of Paris and the docks of New

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1934 1955 On a day of filthy weather, Gaston “the Bulldog” Wearing the rainbow jersey of world champion, Rebry triumphs in the Ronde. Two weeks later, he’ll Louison Bobet leads an inspired breakaway from also take Paris-Roubaix, only the second man in two other cycling legends, Hugo Koblet and Rik history to complete this historic double. Van Steenbergen. Bobet will take the victory.

York. The Mur de Grammont features more porous cobbles, made on after my flat tire [on the Koppenberg]. In good weather, the race from sandstone. Today, 30 or so kilometers of the course have been plays out at higher speeds, and unlucky riders lose any possibility of renovated, their cobbles replaced by granite of Norwegian, Swedish, catching up with the breakaways. Rotten weather offers strong riders or Polish origin. more possibilities.” The hellish conditions have greatly contributed to Since 1993, the cobblestones have been officially protected—like the race’s legend: The spectators in the heroic era cheered on whim- those of Paris-Roubaix—and the bergs, now tourist attractions, have pering riders and—so goes the tale—picked up pieces of frozen fin- become the objects of everyone’s attention. Each hump is observed gers from the ditches. and protected like a small ecological reserve. The bergs even enjoy The bergs, the cobblestones, and the weather are all that remain to their own microclimate as a result of their particular exposure to link us, every April, to the 37 pioneers of 1913. They bequeathed the sun. A few plants have chosen to settle on their slopes, such as the what no one today is quite able to pinpoint: the Flandrian spirit. lathrée clandestine, a purple flower that can survive without light by Attempts at defining this vary somewhat, depending on memories parasitizing poplar or willow trees. More common is the amphibian and to which generation the question is asked. But, in essence, the fire salamander, a guest welcome for its very diplomatic design Flandrian is a hardworking, never-say-die cyclist, born and raised in featuring the Flemish flag colors of yellow and black. the region. Cobblestones have done as much for the myth of the Ronde as for “A tough man,” said Walter Godefroot, who was born in Ghent in that of Paris-Roubaix, but they are not savored with the same sauce. 1943, won the race in 1968 and 1978, and was an excellent Flandrian Those of Roubaix are approached on the flat; the best method of himself. “He chooses to attack even if he must disappear, even if he attack is to fly over them in a high gear. But this method cannot be must die.” And Marc Sergeant, born in Aalst in 1959, the Belgian used during a climb because it is impossible to maintain the necessary national champion in 1986, and now a successful team manager, said, speed. The more specialized riders keep their center of gravity as low “A Flandrian gives all the strength he has over the course of a single on their bike as possible for optimal stability. Dancing on the pedals is day. He is someone generous, with rare willpower. He holds nothing of little help, especially in the rain: not enough grip. The best riders back.” keep their hands low on the handlebars and try to power their way up the middle of the road to attack the gradient at full strength. Despite the 15 or so earlier hills, they still need enough left in them for Schotte: The Last of the Flandrians another kick, one last acceleration to hoist themselves to the summit. The most moving images from the Tour of Flanders, the ones that The portrait of the Flandrian sometimes takes on more political, his- leave a permanent imprint, are those born of horrific conditions. Real torical, or social accents. “Cycling, for us, was originally a way to lift Flanders weather (rain, cold, wind, and hail, with snow an optional ourselves socially,” Godefroot said. “At 16, I worked 57 hours a week extra) has graced only 26 editions of the race, which takes place as a carpenter, and I did two four-hour rides in addition. What father during the first two weeks of spring. But, naturally, some of the most would let his son do that nowadays? A real Flandrian is a man who memorable wins have come in the most terrible weather. knows how to fight because he has always been dominated by The worst of these corresponds to the victories of Fiorenzo Magni someone: the Walloons, who owned the industry and culture, the in 1950 and 1951, Eddy Merckx in 1969, Eric Vanderaerden in 1985, Dutch and Germans, who wanted the lands.” 1 and Edwig Van Hooydonck in 1989. Vanderaerden even went so far as Dominated. The word summarizes, describes, and justifies a cen- to attribute a tactical element to the day’s harshness. “Without these tury of scars, in languages that overlap each other, that Belgium conditions, the Ronde would not be the Ronde,” he said. “They struggles to heal. The Walloon dominated in French; the Flemish accentuate the power relationships between riders. If the weather had plowed in Dutch. For the past half century—with Walloon metal- not been so awful in 1985, I would never have been able to catch back lurgy and textile industries in ruins—all of this has been flipped. Here

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18 LIÈGE - BASTOGNE - LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE

Sample pages from The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races Copyright 2010 VeloPress All rights reserved Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Flèche Wallonne The Doyenne, the only classic to be raced in a round–trip, and its cousin the Arrow have forged their character in the hostile hills of the Ardennes.

Sample pages from The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races Copyright 2010 VeloPress All rights reserved previous page 1983 Flèche Wallonne. It’s a cold morning in the Ardennes forest as the peloton, still warming up, passes a turreted castle at Faulx. The day’s main challenges lie ahead. 1957 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. With 100 km still to race, the leaders duck beneath a closed rail-crossing gate at Cerrieux. The snow squalls will turn the final three hours into a white hell, and only 15 of the 107 starters will make it A Tough to the finish. Round-Trip

If there could be just one bicycle race in the world, it would have to be the headline in L’Équipe the day after Hinault defeated not so much Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Liège is the Doyenne, the dean, of classics, the his adversaries, all swept away by the storm, as the cold and the ele- first to have been “invented,” in 1892,1 and its sawtooth profile repre- ments . . . and himself. sents the ideal course for a road race. Hinault—the Badger—still bears the scars. He shows you his fin- This classic crisscrosses the Ardennes massif, far to the east of the gers, knocking them loudly against a wooden table, and says, “I feel Belgian lowlands, over the verdant heights of the Hautes Fagnes nothing; it doesn’t hurt. I lost all feeling in my fingertips that day.” (High Fens), which include the country’s highest point, the Signal de Botrange at 694 m (2,277 feet) above sea level. The dark forest that surrounds this plateau is cut by the deep valleys of the Ourthe and One Hundred Ten Dropouts in Two Hours Amblève rivers, both tributaries of the Meuse. Throughout history, the region has been a theater of great battles, and that tradition There was total disarray on that April 20 thirty years ago. The first continues in this venerable cycling classic. sign of the drama to come happened on the Sprimont climb rising out The first leg of the trip is far from simple, heading south from of Liège when Lucien Van Impe, a little Belgian climber, decided to Liège over moderate climbs and sharp descents to Bastogne, where quit a mere 10 km after the start. He climbed into a car and asked its General George Patton’s army halted Field Marshall Gerd von occupants to return him without delay to the city center. Others took Rundstedt’s German offensive at the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. A shelter in bistros, whose customers had not imagined rubbing shoul- few abandoned tanks remain like skeletons, reminders of wartime ders with the peloton in such familiarity. On the open plateau before horrors. There’s one tank where the peloton makes its about-turn in Bastogne, the wind whipped snow into the riders’ faces and the road Bastogne, not far from the border with Luxembourg, and another got whiter by the minute. After barely two hours, there were already in the town of Houffalize, right at the foot of the Côte de Saint-Roch, 110 dropouts from the 174 starters. Would anyone finish? the first difficulty in the classic’s modern itinerary. “If it’s still snowing at the ravito [feed zone], I quit,” Hinault Harder still is the return to Liège, which is twice as long and ten warned, no more comfortable than anyone else. At his side was times more difficult than the outgoing journey. Riders soon confront Maurice Le Guilloux, who did his best to raise his leader’s morale. “I the climb at Wanne, which usually takes care of the early breakaway; couldn’t see anything,” remembered this toughest of teammates. then, in quick succession, come the narrow, wall-like Mur de Stockeu “With one hand I held the handlebars; with the other I shielded my and the Haute-Levée, a steep hill that leads to the plateau of face.” But his presence was probably decisive. “I’m convinced that Francorchamps on a long straight road rising in increments. This sec- without me there, the Badger would have given up. I think he thought tion was reintroduced to the course in 2005 after having been he was the team’s only rider still in the race, and he wanted to be the dropped for a few years because of road improvements made necessary last to step off the sinking ship.” As if by a miracle, the clouds parted by the disaster of Stavelot, when a runaway truck whose brakes had at the feed zone in Vielsalm, and Hinault kept riding. failed in the Haute-Levée’s descent caused death and horror in the “Ninety percent of the race was played out in just 2 kilometers,” town at its foot. The field has another half dozen climbs before according to Cyrille Guimard, directeur sportif, or team director, of the finish, including the often decisive La Redoute, where the day’s Hinault’s Renault squad. “We got hit hardest by the snowstorm in the biggest crowds always gather. long downhills before Aywaille and the guys were stopping in groups It is not uncommon for spring to come late to the area. This was of 10. . . . But really, we had the snow for just 30 kilometers, even most notably the case in 1980, when Bernard Hinault left an indelible though it was still 20 centimeters deep on the roadside. That being mark on the race in a raging blizzard. It was perhaps the most memo- said, it was always cold.” rable achievement of the Frenchman’s storied career, and he took the Guimard knew how to play to Hinault’s peculiar psychology. He victory in an extraordinary race. “What legend will remember,” read pulled alongside the Badger as they left Bastogne and said, “Take off

20 LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE

LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE 21

1892 1936 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. When the oldest Flèche Wallonne. They speak classic was first held, in the Victorian era, all French in the Wallonia region, the city streets were paved with Belgian bricks. where the 1st edition of the Flèche Local rider Léon Houa was right at home on the just happened to be won by a cobblestones and claimed the first three Dutch-speaking Belgian, Philémon victories. De Meersman, riding for bicycle maker La Française.

the raincoat. The race starts now.” Hinault obeyed and, because he A few days later came a new twist: Schoubben withdrew his com- was cold, started riding a bit harder. Then, on the arduous Haute- plaint after taking advice from his boss. Derycke, elegant as always, Levée climb, 80 km from the finish, he started a surge. He thought then suggested that he and Schoubben be ranked tied for first. This that Ludo Peeters, Henk Lubberding, Silvano Contini, and Rudy would be done; Belgian cycling league president Arnold Standaert Pevenage, who were with him, would follow his acceleration. But they commenting, “An exceptional measure for exceptional conditions!” would not see him again. It was the starting point of a fantastic solo As for Bobet, he suffered a memorable mechanical breakdown, but ride. refused to abandon and, after struggling over the Hornay climb, The snow had ended, but the riders’ bodies (and their spirits) finished 9th, more than 13 minutes behind the winner. “It’s my job,” were frozen. “I didn’t look at anything. I saw nothing. I thought only he told people wishing to express their admiration. This may have been of myself,” Hinault said after the finish. so, but it was on the night of this 1957 Liège-Bastogne-Liège that as He arrived in Liège as one returns from an arctic expedition. His Bobet approached the dining room to join them at the team restau- closest rival, brave Hennie Kuiper, was more than 9 minutes back. rant, team manager Antonin Magne said to his riders, “Gentlemen, on “When I finished,” recalled the magnificent Dutch rider, “there was your feet, a great champion is about to enter!” almost nobody on the line. Radio and television media were already gone.” Norwegian Jostein Wilmann, who was the last to arrive, in 21st place, finished 27 minutes back. A new page had been added to Trousselier Leading the Climb the legend of cycling. Liège-Bastogne-Liège saw the light of day in 1892, a year after the first Bordeaux-Paris, but the French classic was a point-to-point “Gentlemen, on Your Feet!” marathon, whereas La Doyenne, run over 250 km on a difficult out- and-back course, foreshadowed modern-day races. A wellborn son of If Bernard Hinault’s victory in apocalyptic conditions was a land- Liège, Léon Houa, won the first three editions of the race, which was mark, it was certainly not the only Liège-Bastogne-Liège to have been organized by his own club, the Liège Cyclists Union, at first for ama- run in appalling weather. Indeed, the 1957 edition competes quite teurs (1892 and 1893) before being opened to professionals. The first nicely with the 1980 vintage. Though the race that year took place on of Houa’s successes had great anecdotal value because he broke a pedal May 5, this did not keep the rain from turning first into sleet, then 10 km from the finish and still continued his successful solo break- into snowflakes. The officials soon agreed to supply the riders with away. Never has the phrase “to win on one leg” been so appropriate! hot drinks, and the citizens of Houffalize, informed of this decision, However, in those early days, long-distance road races were far lit stoves and coffeemakers to fuel the chilled riders. less popular in Belgium than track events. For that reason it was only By a curious irony, this extremely painful race went to Germain in 1908, when the race was won by Frenchman Louis Trousselier, that Derycke, who had the reputation of being a hot-weather rider. the race story resumed. However, with the notable exception of Trou- However, his Belgian compatriot Frans Schoubben, who finished trou, Liège-Bastogne-Liège remained a strictly Belgian affair. The 2nd, contested Derycke’s win, claiming that he had gone around a next victory by a foreigner did not come until 1930, when Herman lowered train crossing gate in Cerrieux, as had the French cham- Buse of Germany took first prize. pion, Louison Bobet, and a few other riders. Derycke argued that France’s Camille Danguillaume claimed the race in 1949, which he had merely followed the Frenchman’s lead. But in those days is around the time when the Doyenne’s reputation started to spill over crossing a closed gate was standard practice in France, whereas this the kingdom’s boundaries. That coincided with the creation in 1950 same risky maneuver was formally banned in Belgium—a rule with of the so-called Weekend Ardennais, which allowed the great classic to which Bobet did not seem to be acquainted. In any case, Derycke be matched with a more recent arrival, the Flèche Wallonne, created was demoted. in 1936.

22 LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE

1969 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Beaten in a sprint by Walter Godefroot in 1967, Merckx (left) wants to win in Liège. His Faema teammates Roger Sweerts (in front) and Victor Van Schil (behind) push the pace on one of the early climbs and will help him take the victory.

LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE 27

1955 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Côte du Rosier, 40 km from the finish, and Belgians (left to right) Raymond Impanis, Stan Ockers, and Jan Adriaenssens are making the winning breakaway.

LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE AND THE FLÈCHE WALLONNE 35