CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 228 km round trip from Menen - roughly 3 h 42 in the saddle. It goes by way of Maison syndicale Lens, Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de and back through Maison syndicale Lens. It crosses from Belgium into France - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
British soldiers marching to the front in the First World War left Ypres by the road that led east towards Menen, and the gate they passed through became the Menin Gate, now a memorial bearing the names of more than fifty thousand soldiers with no known grave. Menen itself, about twenty kilometres from Ypres, sits right on the French border, on the river Leie, which the French call the Lys, and its town hall and belfry, standing on the market square, are part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The belfry, like much of the town, was damaged in the war and rebuilt, and it remains the proud symbol of the town's civic history.
Read the complete Belfort en Stadhuis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Belfort en Stadhuis is where the day begins. Next is Maison syndicale Lens.
Lens still wears its history on the surface. The town was flattened in the First World War, which fought over it for most of four years, and rebuilt in brick and concrete in the years after, so what you ride through now is mostly the work of the 1920s and 30s. The Maison syndicale, the union hall, is one of the buildings that belong to that rebuilding and to the world of the pits that surrounded the town, when coal paid the wages and the union bargained for the men who went down. It stands as a reminder that this was a place of organised labour as much as of industry.
Read the complete Maison syndicale Lens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maison syndicale Lens comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de.
On 26 March 1918, with the German spring offensive smashing through the British lines and threatening to split the Allied armies apart, French and British leaders met in the town hall of Doullens, a small town on the river Authie, north of Amiens. In a room on the first floor, they agreed to give the French general Ferdinand Foch the coordination of all Allied forces on the Western Front, a decision that many historians see as a turning point of the war. The room, now known as the Salle du Commandement Unique, can still be visited, with a stained glass window commemorating the meeting. The belfry of the old town hall, a solid tower from the late Middle Ages, is part of the UNESCO group of belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de. Next is back through Maison syndicale Lens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maison syndicale Lens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maison syndicale Lens, late in the day. Next is Belfort en Stadhuis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Belfort en Stadhuis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Belfort en Stadhuis. That is the ride.
Belfort en Stadhuis → Maison syndicale Lens is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maison syndicale Lens → Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de → back through Maison syndicale Lens is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maison syndicale Lens → Belfort en Stadhuis is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.