As in the previous two years, biking enthusiasts have put together the details on the routes for all stages of this year's Tour de France

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/06/tour_de_france_2007.html

Hey Gang...

One of my favorite accessories is the Garmin Edge GPS-- not to keep track of my heart rate, or worse, my average speed (I don't race, why would I train?). But to collect and store all of my rides, since I approach my bicycle with the idea that I'm sightseeing with a flair for high performance.

Anyway,

The joy in this tool is seeing the trackpoints overlaid on a map, and my opinion this is the single best way of to optimize the routes that I chose for a ride.

I use a program called "Ascent" on my iMac to maintain a catalog of my rides. Tracks are displayed in a browser window organized by weeks, months and years. A track can be opened and displayed against various satellite and topo maps. You can also directly export the data into Google Earth-- for a "fly-by."

--and be sure to check out Team-Milram's data @ Motionbased:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/team-milram

Giro d"Italia stages can be viewed here and exported to Google Earth for some cool close-ups of some fabulous countryside.