Why this ride
A 72 km round trip from Mazingarbe - roughly 1 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cité du Moulin, Terril 140 and back through Cité du Moulin.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune and Terril 140
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 72 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 16
- 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. Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Béthune was a mining town on the edge of the Artois, and Pit Number 9 of the Béthune company is one of the surviving complexes that UNESCO included in its listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. A mining complex is more than a hole in the ground: there were the winding house and headframe, the screening and washing plants, the offices, the baths where miners scrubbed off the coal dust, the stables for the pit ponies and the railway sidings, and many of these structures stand near Vermelles. Brick, steel and slag dominate the scene, and a sense of effort and anonymity hangs over it.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is where the day begins. Next is Cité du Moulin.
2. Cité du Moulin
Around Lens the slag heaps rise from the plain like a chain of black pyramids, and the twin cones at Loos-en-Gohelle, among the highest in Europe, are visible for miles. The Cité du Moulin sits in this landscape at Fouquières-lès-Lens, next to Harnes and Billy-Montigny, one of the pit villages built by the mining companies and now part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin. It is a quiet residential area today, but its streets tell the story of the coalfield's most terrible moment.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Moulin comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 140.
3. Terril 140
Rising out of the flat fields north of Douai, the black, cone-shaped hill of Terril 140 is not a natural feature at all: it is a heap of mining waste, the spoil left over from decades of coal extraction. The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a cultural landscape, is studded with hundreds of these terrils, some flat-topped, some pointed, and together with the pitheads, workers' housing and railways they tell the story of an industry that shaped the region for nearly three centuries.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 140. Next is back through Cité du Moulin.
4. back through Cité du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité du Moulin, late in the day. Next is Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
5. Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune to Cité du Moulin
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Cité du Moulin is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Moulin to Terril 140
Cité du Moulin → Terril 140 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 140 to back through Cité du Moulin
Terril 140 → back through Cité du Moulin is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du Moulin to Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
back through Cité du Moulin → Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.