A visit from the Vendée U-Primeo Energie team ahead of the under-23 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
Ahead of what promised to be a busy Ardennes Week, we welcomed the entire Vendée U-Primeo Energie team, led by Jason Yon Snoeckx. As the development squad of the TotalEnergies ProTeam, these young riders said they were impressed by what they discovered at the museum.
Among them was Timothée Coudière-Cantin, who finished third in last year’s Philippe Gilbert Juniors on La Redoute. The visit was made possible by the owner of the Le Menobu hotel and restaurant in La Reid, where the team was staying.
A temporary exhibition celebrating anniversaries of the Ardennes Classics
Until 20 June, the Maison du Cyclisme invites you to relive past editions of La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, “La Doyenne”, through a series of anniversaries: 90 years of La Flèche Wallonne, 15 years since Philippe Gilbert’s victory in Liège (in Ans, to be precise…), 50 years since Joseph Bruyère’s victory, 25 years since Rik Verbrugghe triumphed atop the Mur de Huy, and the 10th edition of Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes.
The exhibition features displays of jerseys, musettes and water bottles associated with past winners of the men’s and women’s races, alongside photographs, films and press archives.
Cycling Evening #4: een boeiende lezing met Philippe Gilbert
On Wednesday 22 April, the evening of La Flèche Wallonne, won by the young French prodigy Paul Seixas, another exceptional talent joined us on stage at the Centre Récréatif de Remouchamps: Philippe Gilbert. For just over two hours, we looked back with our local hero on his outstanding professional career and discussed a wide range of topics relating to his experiences and cycling today.
Through video footage, the audience relived the thrilling highlights of his most successful years, including 2011, when he won De Brabantse Pijl, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in succession. A truly unique achievement.
Short video messages also gave his loved ones, friends in the peloton, former champions and current riders the opportunity to ask him a host of questions. From Marc Madiot and Patrick Lefevere to Tim Wellens, along with Peter Sagan, Thor Hushovd, Jacky Durand, Mickael Delage, Steve Chainel and Giorgia Bronzini, their contributions added a wonderful dimension to the evening.
Around one hundred people attended, including journalists Gordon De Winter (RTL Sports) and Benjamin Verpoorten (RTBF).
The Tour de France route-signage and safety teams at the Maison du Cyclisme
They point riders in the right direction during races organised by A.S.O., including the Ardennes Classics, Paris–Roubaix and the Tour de France. Three members of the route-signage team visited the Maison du Cyclisme on Thursday 23 April. Among them was former Breton rider Johan Le Bon, a former junior world champion, French under-23 time trial champion and runner-up at Tro Bro Leon.
Delighted with their visit, they brought plenty of good cheer to the museum and promised to return with some route signs for us to display.
That same day, we welcomed some familiar faces: members of the safety team. Coming from all corners of France, they had already visited us over the previous two years. This time, they brought their boss along—and they did not come empty-handed! They gave us two “pool noodles”, the distinctive foam protectors fitted around road-sign posts to help riders spot them from a distance and protect them from direct impact with the metal.
We had prepared a special display case to pay tribute to their work, featuring, among other items, the jersey from the “La Route se partage” road-sharing campaign, promoted last year along the Tour route by Thomas Voeckler.
An official delegation from ASO’s management (re)discovers the Maison du Cyclisme
It was a tremendous mark of recognition for our museum: on Thursday, an official delegation from Amaury Sport Organisation, organiser of the Ardennes Classics and the Tour de France, visited the Maison du Cyclisme and our new temporary exhibition.
Joined by Philippe Gilbert, who was in great spirits for the occasion, the delegation was led by Jean-Michel Monin, a sporting official at ASO and Christian Prud’homme’s right-hand man. Monin was particularly delighted to see his former French national track champion’s jersey again, generously loaned to us by collector Sébastien Hamtiaux.
The delegation also included other former French professional cyclists: Gilles Maignan, Yannick Talabardon, Franck Perque, Jean-Marc Marino and Cédric Coutouly. Naturally, they all signed our signature board.
They were joined by representatives of the Pesant Club Liégeois, co-organiser of La Doyenne: Fernand Lambert, accompanied by his wife, and Jean-Pierre Ropet.
The ASO delegation, along with all the museum’s visitors, had the opportunity to discover a particularly distinctive section of our new temporary exhibition: photographs by young Limburg photographer Tom Carlens.
He explained his approach to visitors: away from race day, he travelled along the Liège–Bastogne–Liège route, meeting local residents and photographing the scenery of our beautiful region. Thanks to the work of our intern Xavier, every photograph has been mapped to its location along the race route.
“Along La Doyenne, by Tom Carlens” will remain on display until 20 June.
The French Boys of TotalEnergies take a break from their route recon programme
Once again, thanks to the owner of Le Menobu and Aywaille’s alderman for culture, Jérôme Corbesier, we had the opportunity to welcome a full professional team—or at least its entire Ardennes Classics squad—for the first time since the Maison du Cyclisme opened.
Led by their sports directors Lilian Lebreton and Cyril Lemoine, both former professional riders, the French cyclists from TotalEnergies showed great interest in the museum’s different sections, particularly the interactive areas. Alexandre Delettre certainly lived up to his reputation as the team joker!
Among the riders present, young Alan Jousseaume had distinguished himself the day before their visit by joining the breakaway at La Flèche Wallonne. He did it again on Sunday, riding in the leading group that had broken away from Pogačar, Seixas and the others, alongside Remco Evenepoel, among others.
Alan’s family, who hail from Brittany—a region with which we share a remarkable connection, as you will discover later—also visited the museum shortly afterwards, kindly giving us one of the young rider’s musettes.
A joyful and moving welcome for our Breton friends from Souffles d’Espoir
As we have already shared on social media, since the Maison du Cyclisme opened, we have forged very strong ties with the association Souffles d’Espoir.
This Breton association supports cancer research at the Centre Eugène Marquis (Rennes University Hospital), notably by organising an international collectors’ fair in Dinan, which we attended last November. It also auctions jerseys belonging to former cycling greats to raise funds for research.
One example is Bernard Hinault’s world champion’s jersey, which we will display until the end of 2026. It will then be auctioned in 2027, the year the Cycling World Championships return to Sallanches, where “The Badger” triumphed in 1980.
During the Liège–Bastogne–Liège weekend, 44 of our Breton friends travelled to our region to experience La Doyenne and visit the Maison du Cyclisme. We had taken care to decorate the façade in the association’s colours and dedicate a space inside to it, alongside Bernard Hinault’s track bike and the wooden replica of his Sallanches bike, crafted by French cabinetmaker Daniel Baclez.
The Souffles d’Espoir group was led by its warm and likeable president, Christophe Lefort, alongside Mrs Massart, deputy mayor of Dinan.
The entire group was honoured on Saturday in the late afternoon, under the marquee erected on La Redoute by the Aywaille football club for La Doyenne and its amateur cycling challenge the day before. Following a small collectors’ fair, in which the Maison du Cyclisme also took part, a short ceremony formalised a partnership between the two municipalities. Dinan is already twinned with Dinant in Belgium, in what is Europe’s oldest town-twinning partnership.
Japanese cyclist Fumiyuki Beppu, another loyal friend of the Maison du Cyclisme, also attended the ceremony and visited us again. He had already done so last year, when champions Giorgia Bronzini, Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Marion Norbert-Riberolle visited. “Fumy” is an outstanding ambassador for our museum in the Land of the Rising Sun…
Pogi, Paul, Remco, Tim, Demi and all the others
Sunday was undoubtedly the highlight of this Ardennes Week, with a magnificent duel between Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas on the slopes of La Redoute.
Earlier that morning, the men’s race, arriving from Louveigné, passed in front of the Maison du Cyclisme and our neighbours, the Auberge du Cheval Blanc and Hôtel Bonhomme, where passionate fans had gathered in large numbers. A leading group featuring Remco Evenepoel and Egan Bernal had broken away from the favourites, leaving UAE Emirates to lead the chase, notably with Tim Wellens, clearly visible in this photo.
In the afternoon, the riders passed through the nearby junction again, followed later by the women’s race. Ultimately, Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar won La Doyenne for the fourth time, including three consecutive victories, while Dutch rider Demi Vollering became the first woman to win the race three times.
