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 243 km round trip from Marles-les-Mines - roughly 4 h 22 in the saddle. The stops in between: Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines, Ensemble minier des Argales and back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines.
Comines is one of those towns the border runs straight through. The river Lys, the Leie to the Flemish, divides French Comines from Belgian Comines-Warneton, and you can cross from one country to the other on a bridge without noticing much more than a change in the shape of the street signs. On the French side the town hall and its belfry stand over the main square, a tall brick tower in the Flemish style with a pointed roof and a carillon, part of the group of belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ensemble minier des Argales.
At Rieulay, in the middle of the Scarpe valley, the terril des Argales is one of the largest spoil heaps in France, a vast, flat-topped plateau of mining waste stretching for well over a kilometre. Once a stark, black wasteland, it has been transformed into a nature and leisure area, with a lake at its foot, trails, viewpoints and a nature reserve where rare plants and birds have found a home. The site, together with nearby mining remains, is part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Ensemble minier des Argales write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Ensemble minier des Argales. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines, late in the day. Next is Chevalement du Vieux-Deux.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du Vieux-Deux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Chevalement du Vieux-Deux. That is the ride.
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines → Ensemble minier des Argales is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier des Argales → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines → Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.