The Evening Stage but without Dione de Graaff... Cycling on a Friday evening in South Limburg at the end of June or the beginning of July is fantastic: there is hardly any traffic on the roads and it remains light until about 10 PM. But of course, you can also ride this route during the day. The route starts from the swimming pool Mosaqua in Gulpen and avoids the steepest climbs in South Limburg (and Voerstreek), instead seeking out the longer climbs in the southeastern part of South Limburg and in the Voerstreek.

The first six kilometers of the route are for warming up, as you cycle (upstream) through the beautiful Gulpdal to Slenaken. And then the climbs follow one after another, first you climb the:

1) Schilberg (this is the steepest climb on this route (up to 12%))

You descend the Ulvend (Op den Eiken), and that is in the beautiful (and much quieter in terms of traffic) Voerstreek in Belgium. In the Voerstreek, the climbs follow:

2) De Plank (also known by the name Krindaal)
3) Kasteelstraat (also known as Bovenste Bos), at the foot of the climb lies a castle (hidden), but in the descent, you cycle past the clearly visible Kasteel van Beusdael.

The route goes back into the Netherlands (note: in the descent to Sippenaeken, you turn left into the Netherlands!), and the following climbs come:

4) Camerig-zuid (the longest climb in the Netherlands)
5) Pas van Wolfhaag, at the foot of the climb lies Kasteel Vaalserbroek, this is the only pass in the Netherlands (pass = lower-lying part in a hill or mountain ridge).

You briefly enter Belgium again after the top of the Pas van Wolfhaag. In the descent just before Gemmenich (B), you turn very sharply left, and then follows the climb of:

6) Côte des Trois Frontières (the climb to the Three Country Point)

You then end up back in the Netherlands. A relatively long descent takes you past Vaals, and then it goes up and down through the hamlet of Holset, the village of Vijlen, and the hamlets of Melleschet, Rott, and Hurpesch. Upon reaching the Geuldal, the climb of:

7) Schweiberg

If you have really had enough at this point, you can now cut through to Heijenrath, making the route 6.5 km shorter and skipping the last climb (Loorberg) on the route.
If you don't cut through, you descend via 't Gieveld again into the Voerstreek (Belgium), to cycle through Teuven (B) to the Dutch Slenaken. In the Netherlands, there is one more climb:

8) Loorberg

The last 5 km of the route goes slightly downhill over the Plateau van Crapoel heading north, ultimately descending the King of Spain back to the starting point of the route.