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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
267 km from Sallaumines to Sallaumines, about 4 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Coron des 120, Stadhuis met Belfort and back through Coron des 120. 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.
Sallaumines is one of those towns that merges into its neighbours until you cannot tell where one stops, and the whole built-up band between Lens and Hénin-Beaumont is mining country. Cité Deblock is one of the company housing estates that went up in the twentieth century as the mines expanded, with brick houses in rows or pairs, gardens at the front and back, and a layout planned by engineers who believed good housing kept a workforce loyal. The UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin in 2012 covers a number of such estates, because together they show how an entire society was built around coal.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité Deblock is where the day begins. Next is Coron des 120.
The Coron des 120 is among the most famous rows of miners' houses in France, partly because a film crew chose it. A coron is a long terrace of identical brick cottages built by a mining company, and this one, with its endless line of doors, chimneys and small gardens, was used in the 1993 film of Germinal, Zola's novel of the miners' strike. It lies near Anzin and Petite-Forêt, in the Valenciennes area, at the heart of the mining basin that UNESCO listed in 2012.
Read the complete Coron des 120 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coron des 120 comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.
Oudenaarde's town hall looks like something carved from lace. Built in the early sixteenth century in the late Gothic style, it has a facade covered with pointed arches, niches and statues, and a slender belfry topped with a gilded crown on which stands a small knight known locally as Hanske de Krijger, Little John the Warrior. The building is one of the finest of its kind in Flanders, and it is listed by UNESCO among the belfries of Belgium and France. Inside, there are displays of the tapestries for which Oudenaarde was famous across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially its verdures, woven scenes of forests and greenery.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through Coron des 120.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coron des 120 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Coron des 120, late in the day. Next is Cité Deblock.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cité Deblock. That is the ride.
Cité Deblock → Coron des 120 is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Coron des 120 → Stadhuis met Belfort is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Stadhuis met Belfort → back through Coron des 120 is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Coron des 120 → Cité Deblock is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.