Why this ride
69 km from Wingles to Wingles, about 1 h 11 of riding. The stops in between: Cité n°10, Terril n°10 and back through Cité n°10. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité des Sports Wingles and Terril n°10
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 69 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 11
- 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. Cité des Sports Wingles
Wingles is a town of nine thousand people in the old mining basin, sitting on the edge of the plain where the Lens-Béthune coal fields meet the canal of La Bassée. The coal here was dug from the mid-nineteenth century, and the town still bears the marks: rows of workers' houses, a handful of pit headframes, and slag heaps that rise from the farmland. The sports complex that gives this stop its name is a modern echo of the old social life of the mine, when companies built stadiums, bandstands and gymnasia for their workers, and brass bands and football clubs were as central to the community as the pit itself.
Read the complete Cité des Sports Wingles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité des Sports Wingles is where the day begins. Next is Cité n°10.
2. 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
Cité n°10 comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril n°10.
3. Terril n°10
In the western part of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, around Bruay-la-Buissière, Divion and Marles-les-Mines, the horizon is shaped by terrils, the spoil heaps left by more than two centuries of coal mining. Terril number 10 is one of them, a dark cone of shale and waste rock that has slowly turned green as birch, broom and grasses have colonised it. The basin, with its pits, cités, railway lines and spoil heaps, was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape, recognising both the industrial history and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of miners who worked here.
Read the complete Terril n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril n°10. Next is back through Cité n°10.
4. back through Cité n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Cité n°10, late in the day. Next is Cité des Sports Wingles.
5. Cité des Sports Wingles
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité des Sports Wingles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cité des Sports Wingles. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cité des Sports Wingles to Cité n°10
Cité des Sports Wingles → Cité n°10 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to Terril n°10
Cité n°10 → Terril n°10 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril n°10 to back through Cité n°10
Terril n°10 → back through Cité n°10 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 to Cité des Sports Wingles
back through Cité n°10 → Cité des Sports Wingles is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.