From the Koppenberg to the Mur de Huy — a complete guide to the greatest cycling climbs in Belgium. The...
Belgium doesn’t do gentle. It does cobblestones at 22%, residential streets that double as race finishes, and climbs so short and so brutal that professional cyclists have been filmed walking them on live television. It also produces the best beer in the world, which helps.
Cycling in Belgium means two completely different landscapes and two completely different kinds of suffering. In Flanders, in the north, the land is flat until it suddenly, savagely isn’t — short cobbled climbs called bergs that rise out of farm tracks and decide one-day races in seconds. In the Ardennes, in the south, the roads roll through forested hills and river valleys, and the climbs are longer, steeper, and paved — walls of tarmac that grind legs down over a full Monument distance.
These are the roads that built the Spring Classics. The Tour of Flanders — De Ronde van Vlaanderen — runs every spring over the bergs of Flanders. Liège–Bastogne–Liège, cycling’s oldest Monument, crosses the Ardennes. Every serious cycling fan knows these climbs by name. Every serious cyclist wants to ride them.
This is the complete guide to the greatest cycling climbs in Belgium — and how to get on them yourself.
The Flemish term berg means hill. But a Flandrian berg is nothing like a hill in the conventional sense. They are short — rarely more than a kilometre — and they come out of nowhere, buried in countryside that is otherwise completely flat. The cobblestones that surface them are centuries old, uneven, and brutally efficient at destroying rhythm, sapping power, and separating the riders who belong at the front of the Tour of Flanders from the ones who don’t.
The race that covers these roads — the Ronde van Vlaanderen, or De Ronde — is one of the five Monuments of cycling. It began in 1913 and is known for its challenging cobbled climbs and demanding route. In the build-up to De Ronde each spring, the E3 Saxo Classic and Dwars door Vlaanderen use many of the same climbs — the same roads appearing week after week, each time with higher stakes.
The Koppenberg is the most feared climb in Flanders. It rears up like a wall and the grass banks enclose you in a dank corridor as you climb. There’s no real run-up — a 90-degree corner in the village of Melden drops riders to a crawl, and the gradient rises immediately on cobbles. In 2024, wet conditions meant only the first ten riders — including winner Mathieu van der Poel — made it to the top without putting a foot down.
There is no shame in that. Better riders than you have done the same thing. The Koppenberg is 620 metres of managed chaos, and surviving it is an achievement regardless of how fast you do it.
Short, steep and savage. With a tight 90-degree turn leading directly onto the slope, the Paterberg demands timing and nerve. Its origin is one of cycling’s better stories — a local farmer constructed this 360m cobbled hill himself to attract the Tour of Flanders to his field. Since 2012 it has been the final climb before the finish in Oudenaarde, the launchpad for some of the most decisive attacks in modern Classics racing — Peter Sagan in 2016, Mathieu van der Poel in 2020 and 2024. There is a narrow 60cm gutter on the right offering relief from the cobbles. In the race, crowd barriers block it. You, however, are free to use it.
The longest cobbled climb in Flanders and the most strategically important — climbed three times in the men’s Tour of Flanders, with the final ascent coming with less than 20km remaining. Four percent average sounds manageable. It isn’t. The first metres are on tarmac, then the pavé starts, the gradient kicks up, and the steepest section hits halfway. As you ride into the village of Kwaremont — art galleries, a café, a locally brewed beer at 6.6% alcohol matching the climb’s gradient — you still have a kilometre of rough cobbles to the top.
A Flanders fixture since 1974. Tom Boonen attacked here so often that fans renamed it the Boonenberg. Ramps of 16% on worn cobblestones that reward aggression and punish hesitation.
A few hours south of Flanders, Belgium changes completely. The Ardennes is dense forest, river valleys cut deep into limestone, quiet roads through villages that haven’t changed much in a century. The climbs are paved, not cobbled, but the gradients are unforgiving — and unlike the short, sharp bergs of Flanders, Ardennes climbs come after 200+ kilometres of racing, when legs are already gone.
This is the terrain of Liège–Bastogne–Liège — La Doyenne, the Old Lady — cycling’s oldest Monument, first held in 1892. It is not a race built around one famous cobbled sector or one single climb that decides everything. It is a long, draining, highly selective day in the Ardennes, where the strongest riders are usually forced into showing themselves before the finish. La Flèche Wallonne, held midweek before Liège, ends at the summit of one Ardennes climb — climbed three times in one race.
Mur is French for wall. The Mur de Huy earns the name — 1.3km with a maximum gradient of 26% on an S-bend that brings the peloton to a near-halt. La Flèche Wallonne has finished here since 1985, the winner determined by whoever can still sprint at the top of a 26% wall after 250km. On race day it becomes a corridor of noise, fans with beer in one hand and frites in the other. On any other day it looks like an unremarkable residential street — until you point your front wheel upward.
The defining climb of Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Coming less than 40km from the finish, La Redoute lulls you into a false sense of security on the lower slopes before the road narrows, bends left, and hits 17–20%. If you don’t have the legs here, there’s not much chance of coming back. After 200+ kilometres of racing, it is not beautiful. It is a reckoning.
You don’t need to qualify for a Monument. Our Belgium cycling tours are built around exactly these roads. The Cycling Tour of Flanders takes on the bergs — Koppenberg, Paterberg, Oude Kwaremont, Taaienberg — guided by Arno, who has spent his career on these roads. The Flanders & Ardennes tour covers both regions: cobbles in the north, long Ardennes climbs in the south. And the Belgium Cycling Holiday, which Arno diplomatically notes features the Monuments “a little less” — though the post-ride Trappist is no less deserved.
These are the roads that built the Spring Classics. They’re waiting for you.
