Dison-Baraque Michel-Spa-Dison 82 km

Nice cycling trip from Verviers to Baraque Michel on the Hautes Fagnes and back. The trip starts in Dison, very close to the exit of the A27 motorway, where you can park beneath the motorway viaduct. Almost immediately, you are woken up by the steep climb of Côte de Mont (see waypoint). You then cycle east across the hills and down the Vesdre valley to Limbourg. Another steep hill (see waypoint) takes you to the old city of Limbourg (the steepest part is the cobblestoned road on the left when you enter the medieval town). The road climbs on for a short while, and you then descend back to the Vesdre valley. Here you turn right towards the Gileppe reservoir. Here the ascend to Baraque Michel starts, a long 18.7 km climb from 224 to 671 meters. The ascend includes cycling flat for 6 km around the Gileppe reservoir. It is a nice climb along the lake and through the forest on quiet forest roads inaccessible to cars. The last 4 km are on the busy N68 Eupen-Malmedy road, but include beautiful views across the moors as you approach Baraque Michel. You can take a break here and then continue for 700 meter before turning right on another forest road taking you off the N68 for 3.5 km before joining the N68 again for the descent to Mont. Here you turn right on the Route de L'Ancienne Douane to climb back to 600 m and then descend via Hockai to Cokaifagne. Here you take another forest road for 4 km (the last few 100 m are badly paved) to the N62. Here you can have a nice and fast descend to Spa. Here I took the Jeu de Paume (see waypoint), a very steep climb ending in 400 m unpaved road. If you do not like the unpaved road, you can take the alternative climb of Annette et Lubin (see waypoints alternative 1 and 2). From there you continue to Tiège, and then descend to the Hoëgne valley, from where you make the last climb to Transvaal. A last descend takes you to Verviers where you make a short touristic detour through the city center, before you make the final kilometers back to Dison.
The entire route is suited for the racing bike, with the exception of the last few 100 meters of the Jeu de Paume (see waypoint), which was not too bad after all (after the steep climb you are not in the mood to ride fast anyway). Three steep climbs are indicated by waypoints and a description in Dutch can be found on the website www.kuitenbijters.com. The route: Dison/ Mont/ Bilstain/ Dolhain/ Limbourg/ Hevremont/ Goé/ Lac de la Gileppe/ Baraque Michel/ Mont/ Hockai/ Cokaifagne/ Spa/ Tiège/ Polleur/ Transvaal/ Heusy/ Verviers/ Dison.