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 97 km round trip from La Louvière - roughly 1 h 57 in the saddle. On the way it passes Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes, Beffroi de Thuin and back through Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The coal that powered Belgium came from a ribbon of pits across Hainaut, and Bois-du-Luc is where the story is told best. The mining company here, the Societe de Bois-du-Luc, was founded in the late seventeenth century, making it one of the oldest in Europe, and it kept going until the pit closed in 1973. The site is now a museum and heritage centre, and it is listed by UNESCO as one of the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, together with Grand-Hornu, Bois du Cazier and Blegny-Mine.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bois-du-Luc is where the day begins. Next is Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes.
Beneath the fields south-east of Mons lies a honeycomb of shafts and galleries dug by Neolithic farmers more than six thousand years ago. They were after flint, the essential raw material for axes and tools, and they dug shafts up to fifteen metres deep through the chalk to reach the best seams, using antler picks and stone hammers. The mines at Spiennes, covering more than a hundred hectares, are the largest and earliest in north-western Europe, and they were inscribed by UNESCO in 2000. An interpretation centre allows visitors to descend into one of the shafts, and on the surface the ground is still scattered with flint flakes.
Read the complete Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Thuin.
Thuin sits on a rocky spur above the Sambre, and from the river it looks like a town that climbed a hill to keep its feet dry. At the top stands the belfry, a tall square tower with an onion-shaped spire that was originally the bell tower of a collegiate church and survived when the church itself did not. Since 1999 it has been part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France, a reminder that towns in this region measured their freedom in bells, towers and charters.
Read the complete Beffroi de Thuin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Thuin. Next is back through Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes, late in the day. Next is Bois-du-Luc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Bois-du-Luc. That is the ride.
Bois-du-Luc → Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes → Beffroi de Thuin is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Thuin → back through Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes → Bois-du-Luc is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.