Why this ride
An 83 km round trip from Lallaing - roughly 1 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cité Bruno, Fosse n°5 and back through Cité Bruno.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fosse n°2 de Flines and Fosse n°5
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 83 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 26
- 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. Fosse n°2 de Flines
The headframe is the giveaway. In the low, watery country between Lallaing, Anhiers and Flines-lez-Raches, the steel or concrete winding towers of old coal pits still stand as markers, and Fosse n°2 de Flines is one of the sites that recall the industry that shaped this corner of the Douai area. A fosse in the local vocabulary is a pit with its shafts, buildings and spoil heap, and around each one a small world grew: rows of brick housing, a church, a school, and the company offices that ran the lives of everyone underground and above it.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fosse n°2 de Flines is where the day begins. Next is Cité Bruno.
2. Cité Bruno
Dourges sits between Lens and Douai, in the very middle of the old coal basin, and the Cité Bruno is one of the rows of brick homes the mining company put up for its workers. What stays with you is the quiet. A district that once lay under smoke now has pigeons on the roofs, bicycles against the walls and hedges clipped square, and the street plan, with its straight lines and identical frontages, makes it feel like a stage set for a very ordinary life. Château Dampierre, the name that goes with this stop, is a reminder that the land around here also belonged to owners and gentry long before the pits, so there is a country-house layer under the industrial one.
Read the complete Cité Bruno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Bruno comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fosse n°5.
3. Fosse n°5
Douvrin, Billy-Berclau and Wingles form a little triangle of brick towns at the northern edge of the Lens coalfield, and the old pit known as Fosse n°5 sits among them. It is not a famous site and does not need to be: its value lies in being one of the many pieces that make up the mining landscape UNESCO listed in 2012, a network of pits, housing estates, slag heaps, railways and public buildings stretching for over a hundred kilometres across the north of France. Seen from the saddle, the area is a patchwork of cités, fields, canals and newer industrial estates, with the occasional terril breaking the skyline.
Read the complete Fosse n°5 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 41 km into the recorded legs you reach Fosse n°5. Next is back through Cité Bruno.
4. back through Cité Bruno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Bruno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Bruno, late in the day. Next is Fosse n°2 de Flines.
5. Fosse n°2 de Flines
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Fosse n°2 de Flines. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Fosse n°2 de Flines to Cité Bruno
Fosse n°2 de Flines → Cité Bruno is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Bruno to Fosse n°5
Cité Bruno → Fosse n°5 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°5 to back through Cité Bruno
Fosse n°5 → back through Cité Bruno is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Bruno to Fosse n°2 de Flines
back through Cité Bruno → Fosse n°2 de Flines is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.