Bike Ride from Liège to Huy
Riding the Hills of Flèche Wallonne
May 30, 1999

Distance: 76 miles/122 kilometers
Elevation: 3,315 feet/1,010 meters
Difficulty: 7/10
Scenery: 7/10;
Route: Liège-Seraing-Engis-St. Georges-Villers le Bouillet-
Huy-Outrelouxhe-Amay-Jehay-Amay-Nandrin-Grand Berleur-
Plainevaux-Boncelles-Seraing-Liège

For the second half of my "Ardennes weekend," I headed west of Liège for the hills that flank both sides of Huy, with a view towards taking in as much of the La Flèche Wallonne route as I can within the 70- or 80-mile limit that I had set for the day. Sure, I wanted to cover a more substantial part of the course, but, after the Liège-Bastogne-Liège efforts of yesterday, I didn’t feel quite up to the challenge of back-to-back hundred milers, so….

(Above: Liège)

The weather was not as hot as the scorcher of the day before; in fact, the sky was overcast, though the temperature was pleasantly mild. I got on the Quai de Rome just north of the Meuse river and followed this road westward for about 10 miles through Seraing and Engis. Though this stretch looked inviting on the map, it is…ummm…quite a letdown in reality. Liège and its sprawl are in dire need of some enlightened urban planning. The river, for example, had been effectively choked off by a dual-carriage way on the south bank and an equally fast highway on the north bank. Now, call me cynical, but what does a city the size of Liège need both highways for? This clueless road planning is matched only by an equally appalling lack of aesthetic planning: the road from Liège to Seraing is lined for kilometers with hydra-headed concrete smokestacks belching, like park drunkards, seemingly all hours of the day, even this early Sunday morning. Here and there, abandoned warehouses, disused train stations, rusted industrial overpasses and buildings with broken-in windows lay about like rotting carcasses, casualties of a relentless but indiscriminate push to modernization. No wonder the cars whizzing by me were in such a hurry. They didn’t want to spend any more time looking at these eyesores than necessary. The frustrating thing was that other cities would kill to have a riverside area they can pedestrianize, develop, and showcase to visitors. To draw tourists. To provide an oasis amidst the bustle of city life. Not Liège. It’s seemed too industrial-minded for such nonsense. Such a shame. OK, off the soapbox and on to the description of the ride….

Things quieted down considerably after I passed a four-way junction in Seraing. Though my initial plan was to follow the road I was on all the way to Huy, it became apparent that the character of the road, and the uninspiring scenery around it, were not going to improve. I looked at my map and decided to turn right at Engis to check out a single-chevron rated road above Amay. It was an improvement. Though its lower sections were residential, the detour at least took me out of the rut I was in. In fact, from this elevated vantage point, the industrial eyesores were mostly hidden from view—the view of the river and of the hills across were quite pretty. The twisty, residential section reminded me a lot of Grizzly Peak Boulevard in the Berkeley hills.

Though primarily uphill, the grades up Engis were not too severe. After a couple of kilometers, the terrain plateaud between St. Georges and Villers le-Bouillet, and the scenery metamorphosed from industrial/residential to predominantly rural farmlands interspersed with quiet little towns. Nondescript suburban landscape gave way to lush farms and grey brickhouses. "This is more like it," I thought.

(Above: Bodegnee, between Huy and Liège)

I continued riding westward. Soon I was riding in the hills just above Huy, and I had to come down. So I crossed the N684, and turned south (left) on the N65 for a sweet, eight-kilometer gentle descent to Huy. La Flèche Wallonne actually went through this same road in 1999, though in the uphill direction, after having tackled the first of its three climbs up the wall that was Mur de Huy.

(Below: Huy from the N65)