liege bastogne liege

rowman

Hi,

I'm trying to locate the website to enter the liege bastogne liege sportif? Has any one already entered?

Thanks in advance

blim

There are actually a few. The longest-standing one is Tilff-Bastogne-Tilff
http://sport.be.msn.com/cyclingtour/tilffbastognetilff/2011/nl/ which is in June,
but this year (for the first time as far as i can judge) there's an official one the day before: http://sport.be.msn.com/lblcyclo/2011/fr/ so you could combine it with watching the race.

rowman

Thanks 12.5 euros for the Tilff - Bastogne - Tilff seems like a really bargain considering what organisers in the UK are charging.

FransJacques

It's interesting - TBT is the Belgian-organized one, the LBL is the Dutch-organzied one with some important differences:

Start/Finish Locations:
The Dutch one is called LBL b/c it starts and finishes at the Holiday Inn in Liege. This is not really a good thing b/c the suburb of Tilff cuts off about 10kms of really nasty, busy urban riding through countless stop lights. Out and back, the extra kms probably added 30-40 mins of sucking fumes. One good thing about the LBL route is that the long false flat finish into Liege is covered quickly - I was chugging along in a group of 12 at about 45 kph which felt great after 8 hours' riding.

Climbs:
Both sportif organizers need dispensation from local authorities to run the rides since 10,000 people do each. Guess what? The Belgians tend to get more approvals than the Dutch organizers, this was actually pointed out to me by the Dutch. I can't really remember which ones but we defo missed out on a few key, iconic climbs, the Col de Rosiere was one of them IIRC. We did the usual stuff tho, La Redoute... Note that there is still about 4000 vert meters of climbing so my legs didn't exactly miss anything.

I've not done TBT but would opt for this one to compare with the Dutch one. Being Dutch, the riders were good, the organization was absolutely excellent, and the feed stops were incredible. You really don't need to bring anything with out other than a credit card, EUR 50 emerg. money, arm warmers, gilet, route card for stamping, and 2 full bottles to start. It's that good. It was about EUR 35 all up. Note that the TBT is also an a la carte affair, you need to add on some extras to get to the normal full price.

LBL is defo a Flanders style event: very relaxed with lots of really friendly riders to work with should want to quicken the pace. I also can't get over how pleasant the Dutch riders were, really well behaved, no flare ups at cars or other riders, no running lights, and some could roll like Cancellara.

rowman

Well I've done the deed. Entry fee paid and Eurostar booked. In fact its all turned out to be a bit of a bargain. I was planning on doing the Marmotte or Campagnolo (Sportful) again but the cost were getting out of control. Ryanaiir wanted £80 just to carry my bike! All in all the TBT is going to cost £80 return on Eurostar plus £10 entry and two nights in a hotel in Liege.

Does anyone out there have any bike friendly hotel recommendations in Liege / Tilff?

FransJacques

I stayed in the Campanile.