Why this ride
A 65 km round trip from Lens - roughly 1 h 21 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monument à Madame Declercq, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai and back through Monument à Madame Declercq. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Monument Emile Basly and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 65 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 21
- 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. Monument Emile Basly
Émile Basly was a miner who became a union leader, a deputy and for a long time the mayor of Lens, and his monument stands in the town as a salute to the people who worked underground. He led the great strike of 1884 at Anzin, which inspired Zola's Germinal, and later rose to national politics as a socialist. In Lens, a town of over thirty-eight thousand people at the heart of the Pas-de-Calais coalfield, he remains a local hero. The town was razed in the First World War and rebuilt in the 1920s, so much of the centre has the brick-and-concrete look of that rebuilding.
Read the complete Monument Emile Basly write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument Emile Basly is where the day begins. Next is Monument à Madame Declercq.
2. Monument à Madame Declercq
Oignies is a small town in the Pas-de-Calais, at the edge of the old coal basin near the border with the Nord, with a monument at its heart to the people who lived and died by the pits.
Read the complete Monument à Madame Declercq write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument à Madame Declercq comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai.
3. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai
The belfry of Douai rises above the town hall like a stone exclamation mark, a tall, square tower with a corner turret and a gilded lion at the top. Belfries were the symbols of medieval towns in Flanders and northern France, built to show that a town had won its freedoms, and to hold the bell that called citizens to meet, fight or put out fires. Douai's was begun in the fourteenth century and finished in the fifteenth, and it is one of the group of belfries of Belgium and France that UNESCO lists together.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai. Next is back through Monument à Madame Declercq.
4. back through Monument à Madame Declercq
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument à Madame Declercq write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Monument à Madame Declercq, late in the day. Next is Monument Emile Basly.
5. Monument Emile Basly
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument Emile Basly write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Monument Emile Basly. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Monument Emile Basly to Monument à Madame Declercq
Monument Emile Basly → Monument à Madame Declercq is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument à Madame Declercq to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai
Monument à Madame Declercq → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai to back through Monument à Madame Declercq
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai → back through Monument à Madame Declercq is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument à Madame Declercq to Monument Emile Basly
back through Monument à Madame Declercq → Monument Emile Basly is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.