Verviers is linked to the rich cycling history of the Liege Province. It hosted the Fleche Wallonne several times, but also the Giro in 1973 and 2002 as well as the Tour de France in 1976 with a stage won by Basque rider Miguel Maria Lasa after a tense fight with French champion Guy Sibille. More recently, Verviers was a stage town in the Ster ZLM Toer, won three times by Verviers-born Philippe Gilbert. Another former yellow jersey holder, Tony Gallopin, won a stage of Liege-La Gleize in Verviers in the junior ranks.
A forgotten local hero was one of the first stars of Belgian cycling. Winner of the first edition of Paris-Brussels in 1893, Andre Henry became famous in the whole of Belgium and was received by King Leopold II. A humble bricklayer from Verviers, he could not handle his sudden celebrity and attempted to commit suicide before dying at 45 in a mental institution near Tournai.
