The Côte de Saint-Nicolas is a climb of

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

in the municipality of Saint-Nicolas in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is often included in the

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five ''Monuments'' of the European professional r ...

cycling classic The classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional road cycling races in the international calendar. Some of these events date back to the 19th century. They are normally held at roughly the same time each year. The five most ...

, where it comes as one of the last difficulties, at approximately 6 km from the finish in the neighbouring municipality of

Ans Ans or ANS or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Ans, Belgium, a municipality in Belgium * Ans, Denmark, a village in Denmark * Angus, Scotland, UK; a council area by its Chapman code * Ainsdale railway station, England, UK (by station code ...

. With a length of 1.4 km at an average gradient of 7.6%, it is often a decisive site of the race. The climb is nicknamed ''The Italian Hill'', because of the composition of its immigrant population and their descendants – often from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and the South of Italy. Their presence is particularly expressed by the many Italian flags hanging outside the windows, especially during race day of Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

References

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Climbs in cycle racing in Belgium Mountains and hills of the Ardennes (Belgium) Mountains and hills of Liège Province Liège {{Liège–Bastogne–Liège-race-stub