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 196 km round trip from Ostricourt - roughly 3 h 13 in the saddle. The stops in between: Terril 125a, Belfries of Belgium and France, Cité du Rivage ancienne and back through Belfries of Belgium and France. The line favours views over speed.
The flat country between Douai and Lens does not look like much from a motorway, but it holds one of the great industrial landscapes of Europe. For more than two centuries coal was dug from under these fields, and the mining basin of the Nord-Pas de Calais was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and workers' housing. The Fosse Cornuault at Évin-Malmaison is one piece of that vast mosaic, a former colliery site with its associated buildings, set among the brick villages of the eastern part of the basin.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault is where the day begins. Next is Terril 125a.
On the southern edge of the coal basin, where Auberchicourt, Écaillon and Aniche run into one another, a long spoil heap rises above the brick roofs and the fields. Terril 125a is one of the many numbered heaps that the Nord-Pas de Calais inventory catalogues, and it belongs to the old concession of the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche, one of the historic coal companies of the region. Aniche itself is a reminder that the north was not only about coal: the town had a long glassmaking tradition, and the combination of fuel, sand and labour made the area an industrial hub well before the twentieth century.
Read the complete Terril 125a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 125a comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Belfries of Belgium and France.
Cambrai gave its name to a fabric. Cambric, a fine light linen, was once woven and traded in this town, and the word survives in English. The town is also known for a small, translucent mint sweet called the bêtise de Cambrai, which the locals say was invented by mistake, and a visit to a confectioner is a pleasant way to spend ten minutes. The belfry is one of the group of belfries across northern France and Belgium that UNESCO listed together, as symbols of the independence of medieval towns, and in Cambrai it is a tall stone tower in the town centre, while the town hall nearby has two mechanical figures, Martin and Martine, who strike the hours.
Read the complete Belfries of Belgium and France write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Belfries of Belgium and France. Next is Cité du Rivage ancienne.
Brick terraced houses, small gardens and a straight street running toward the Escaut: at first glance the Cité du Rivage in Bruay-sur-l'Escaut looks like any working-class neighbourhood in northern France. It is part of something much larger. In 2012, UNESCO listed the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, a landscape of pit villages, headframes, slag heaps and railways stretching over a hundred kilometres, as a monument to three centuries of coal. This cité is one of its many fragments, an early housing development built by the mining companies to keep their workers close to the pits.
Read the complete Cité du Rivage ancienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité du Rivage ancienne, about halfway. Next is back through Belfries of Belgium and France.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Belfries of Belgium and France write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Belfries of Belgium and France sits at 127 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 125a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 125a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terril 125a comes up about 171 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault closes the day.
Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault → Terril 125a is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 125a → Belfries of Belgium and France is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Belfries of Belgium and France → Cité du Rivage ancienne is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Rivage ancienne → back through Belfries of Belgium and France is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Belfries of Belgium and France → back through Terril 125a is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 125a → Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.