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Mapping the 2011 Tour de France — In 3D!

Howdy All Over the Mappers. Today I want to give a quick sneak preview of our exclusive Tour de France map coverage. Here in the Boulder map office, we’ve been buried deep in the 21 stages for this year’s Tour.

Below you will see a map that has every stage on it. If you click the “Trip Details” link on the bottom of the map, you will be taken to the map page that has links to all of the individuals stages.

2011 TOUR DE FRANCE: THE COMPLETE TOUR
Every stage, every sprint, every climb. This is the complete route for the 2011 Tour de France. Download the Google Earth file to view the stages in 3D and follow along as the racers battle for 3,430.5 kilometeres to wear the coveted yellow jersey in the world’s grandest tour.

If you want, you can download a Google Earth file in the DOWNLOAD TO section on the left side on the page, and then you can view this map in 3D, which is really, really cool. And only Bicycling.com Ride Maps brings you this awesome technology, right to your desktop! The coolest part is that you can do this with any of your own rides–these maps just happen to cover remote, mountainous sections of France that you typically only see from your couch in heat of July.

Once you’ve downloaded Google Earth, the KML files from the Ride Maps site will open on your desktop. Then you can zoom over the Alps and the Pyrenees to see each twist and turn of the road, and where the critical KOM climbs are on the mountain stages.

If you click on the tracks in the Places menu, you can view interactive elevation profiles and see how steep the road really is–even down to the percentage of slope!

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Stage 18 Elevation Profile

Stage 18 Elevation Profile

Google Earth is a really powerful tool, and when you pair it with AllSport GPS on your smartphone, it becomes the perfect complement to your ride mapping efforts as well.

Enjoy following this year’s tour–in 3D! During the race I’ll discuss flyover tours and other advanced features in Google Earth, and how you can harness the power of this tool for your own ride mapping.

-Andrew Matranga, Bicycling.com Map Editor


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