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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Sallaumines it runs 298 km to Sallaumines; allow about 5 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Terril n°10, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul, Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
On the morning of 10 March 1906, an explosion tore through the galleries of the Courrières mining company, killing well over a thousand miners. It remains the worst mining disaster in European history. Most of the victims came from the towns of Méricourt, Sallaumines and Billy-Montigny, and many were buried in a mass grave nearby. Twenty days after the explosion, thirteen survivors emerged from the darkness, having found their way through the ruined galleries, and their story became famous across Europe. The memorials in and around Sallaumines honour the dead and the rescuers, including German miners from Westphalia who came to help.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril n°10 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul.
Bailleul sits in French Flanders, so close to the Belgian border that you can hear Flemish place names on every signpost, and its town hall belfry, rising over the main square with a pointed spire and a carillon, looks every bit as Flemish as the towers of Ypres or Bruges. Like much of the town, it is a rebuilding: Bailleul was almost entirely destroyed in the spring of 1918, during the German offensive in Flanders, and was reconstructed in the 1920s in a neo-Flemish style of brick, stepped gables and decorative stonework. The belfry is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul. Next is Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort.
Lo is one of the smallest towns in Belgium, a cluster of brick houses around a market square in the flat polders of the Westhoek, a few kilometres from the French border. Its former town hall, built in the sixteenth century in Renaissance style, has a small belfry tower, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France, alongside much grander towers in Bruges, Ghent and Lille. It is a reminder that even tiny towns had civic pride and privileges worth announcing to the world.
Read the complete Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque.
The tower of Dunkirk's town hall rises above the centre of a city rebuilt from the ruins of the Second World War, a brick and stone belfry that is part of the World Heritage Site of the Belfries of Belgium and France. Belfries were symbols of civic freedom in the medieval towns of Flanders and northern France, housing bells and sometimes the town's charters, and they stood as proud counterparts to church towers. Dunkirk actually has two listed belfries, the town hall tower and the separate Saint-Éloi belfry beside the church, a reminder of how much these towns valued their bells.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 221 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul. Next is back through Terril n°10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril n°10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terril n°10, late in the day. Next is Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 298 km.
Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de → Terril n°10 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril n°10 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul → Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque → back through Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voormalig Stadhuis met Belfort → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul → back through Terril n°10 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril n°10 → Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.