Just a suggestion, but it will make it much easier for those wanting to follow the race. Edit your subject lines to better describe the contents. Instead of "Re: Tour de France 2005" on all of them, instead show something like "Tour de France 2005 - stage 1" or whichever one is appropriate. I know you can only edit your own, but I hope other posters in this string will read it too and edit their subject lines.

Here is KMZ for Stage 9, the first mountain stage of the Tour, on Jul 10th.

NOTE (Jul 9): The Route Path is slightly revised around the finishing line, refering the detail map below.
The path starting from G�rardmer to Mulhouse is based on the GPS data at tour.ARD.de. I am not sure how to connect those 2 lines in the city of Mulhouse, but it may connect as I showed with green path line.
The route usually does not cross, but if you close up the crossing by Google Earth to extreme, it looks like overhead crossing - but now sure...
If somebody knows correct route, pls let us know.
Thanks!

NOTE: KMZ file is updated with PATH of the route!!

Note: one of sprint B point was missing - added.
Good route map that I refered to make this KMZ is at cyclingnews.com.

Finish:



Enjoy!

Here is KMZ for Stage 7.
Friday, July 8: Lun�ville - Karlsruhe (Germany), 228.5 km

Mostly flat stage. It goes into Germany, so click on both Roads and borders in navigation panel and enjoy

Pls refer letour.fr and cyclingnews.com as well.

NOTE: KMZ file for this stage is updated - "PATH" data is added!!
You may recognize some placemarkes are not on path line, but I prefer info on letour.fr about road selection. Pls see my comment here.

Finish (Karlsruhe):

Niels wrote:
"I just converted the gps data found here
http://www.travelbygps.com/special/letour05/letour.php "

Freely providing location information for recreational use is what TravelByGPS.com is all about. I would be interested to learn what I can do to make this data easier for Google Earth users to work with.
- Doug
www.TravelByGPS.com
Travel by GPS (tm) Maps Waypoints and Tracks to Adventure

on this page (unfortunately only in german) the gps-waypoints for all the stages are downloadable as a txt-file.

http://www.tour.ard.de/tour/tdf/strecke/index.jhtml

No problem to import that in google earth plus, et voila: the tracks are here..

Keep on cycling....

Thomthom

Thomthom, this is great!!
If you got Google Earth Plus, locate all those GPS data will make smooth path line on the map! (I just don't know how to make vector data file to import with this GPS data. Does anyone knows or point out website to make kml from this?).

The time schedule data sheet (on letour.fr or this web site) tells road number (B.3, L3757 etc), but it's hard to find them on Google Earth or Mapquest, especially in large town. This GPS data helps.

One thing I definitely hope to have is distance data (kilometers from start/to go) on each GPS locations... if we have this matchup, it would be perfect as it is critical when you watching TV coverage...

Hope Google to restart upgrade to Plus sooner...

Anyhow this help in big way to locate the roads. Thanks!

One thing I just found about this GPS data on tour.ARD.de is that this data is not accurately based on official time schedule data on letour.fr .

For example, the refreshment point of Stage 7 in town of URMATT, official data says it go thru route D.392 (north side road), but the GPS data is plotted on N.420 (south side road). Pls compare Google map and Mapquest.

Google Map / marked with tour.ARD.de

Mapquest

This happens some portion of the data, so I guess tour.ARD.de might just projected the road...
Most of mountain road GPS data looks like perfect, and it's not any problem if you just watch TV and track it on Google Earth/Map. But people who will watch the race there in person should check road number on letour.fr... There should be bunch of fans so nobody should lose the way in anyway...

Just my 2 cents, and I will try to make better KMZ.

nagoyan

Nagoyan, you�re right, it seems...
anyway, I pasted the gps-informations in a kml-file - how does it looks like? (Well, I can adjust the color...)
I only made the last one in Paris for the beginning.

Thomthom, this is good! I don't have Plus then I cannot make path, but it's very natural for all TdF fans to see the route with path line.
If we can put placemarks with point/distance info like I did for other stages (on this thread), it would be perfect. You can use those kmz files and put path then reupload.

I am just curious what kind of technique you used to make this path, transform GPS data into kml. Did you use stylesheets or Excel to make GE Plus importable data? I believe free version cannot import any vector data, so it would be great help if I can transform them outside of Google Earth.

Thanks,

nagoyan

I did it the dirty way - just pasted the coordinates into an existing kml-file.
All you have to do then is to delete some spaces and so on, I can provide you with the details if you wantm just send me a private message.
An xml would be nice, maybe if there is time...