Why this ride
A 105 km round trip from Marles-les-Mines - roughly 1 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Terril 34, Cité n°10 and back through Terril 34. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux and Cité n°10
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 105 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 53
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
Marles-les-Mines is a small town of about six thousand people west of Béthune, in the hilly western fringe of the coalfield, and the headframe known as the Vieux-Deux, the old Number Two, stands among its houses as a stubborn monument. The Compagnie des mines de Marles sank its shafts here in the nineteenth century, and the pit worked until the twentieth. The tall frame has been preserved, and together with the nearby terril and the cités around it, forms part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, the World Heritage Site listed in 2012.
Read the complete Chevalement du Vieux-Deux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is where the day begins. Next is Terril 34.
2. Terril 34
A terril is a slag heap, a mountain of waste rock dumped beside a coal mine, and in the flat land of northern France these man-made hills are the closest thing to relief for miles around. Terril 34 is one of hundreds that dot the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, a UNESCO site since 2012, which recognises not only the heaps but also the pithead frames, miners' housing estates, schools, churches and railway lines that made up the landscape of coal mining in the region for nearly three centuries. This one sits near Norrent-Fontes and Lillers, at the western end of the basin, where it meets the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 34 comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.
3. Cité n°10
Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is back through Terril 34.
4. back through Terril 34
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 34, late in the day. Next is Chevalement du Vieux-Deux.
5. Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du Vieux-Deux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Chevalement du Vieux-Deux. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux to Terril 34
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux → Terril 34 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to Cité n°10
Terril 34 → Cité n°10 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to back through Terril 34
Cité n°10 → back through Terril 34 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 34 to Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
back through Terril 34 → Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.