Why this ride
From Lens it runs 69 km to Lens; allow about 1 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Cité Crombez, Cités de Guesnain and back through Cité Crombez. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gare de Lens and Cités de Guesnain
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 69 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 13
- 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. Gare de Lens
Lens station looks like a locomotive, which is exactly what its architects intended. The Art Deco building, completed in the 1920s to replace a station destroyed in the First World War, has a long low front with a tall central block that suggests a train at speed, and its brick and stone are laid out with real flair. Inside and out it was designed to tell people that this was a town that had survived and meant to thrive, and few stations of its date achieve the effect so well.
Read the complete Gare de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gare de Lens is where the day begins. Next is Cité Crombez.
2. Cité Crombez
Cité Crombez is a miners' settlement at Noyelles-Godault, on the eastern edge of Hénin-Beaumont, in the heart of the old coal basin between Lens and Douai. Built by the mining company to house its workers, it has the classic layout of brick houses, gardens and straight streets, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. Today it is a quiet residential area, surrounded by shopping centres, motorways and the remains of heavy industry.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Crombez comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités de Guesnain.
3. Cités de Guesnain
A kilometre down the road from the workers' housing of Guesnain stands the best place in France to understand what coal really meant. The Centre Historique Minier at Lewarde occupies the old Delloye pit, which closed in 1971, and it walks you through the whole life of a mine: the lamp room, the showers where miners hung their clothes on chains up to the ceiling, the stables for the pit ponies, and a reconstructed gallery underground where you hear the noise of the picks and the creak of the props. Come here first, and every terrace and terril you pass afterwards will make more sense.
Read the complete Cités de Guesnain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités de Guesnain. Next is back through Cité Crombez.
4. back through Cité Crombez
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Crombez, late in the day. Next is Gare de Lens.
5. Gare de Lens
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gare de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Gare de Lens. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Gare de Lens to Cité Crombez
Gare de Lens → Cité Crombez is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Crombez to Cités de Guesnain
Cité Crombez → Cités de Guesnain is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de Guesnain to back through Cité Crombez
Cités de Guesnain → back through Cité Crombez is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Crombez to Gare de Lens
back through Cité Crombez → Gare de Lens is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.