Lots of fresh faces show up here at the Cafe and the cycling media landscape in general during the Tour de France, and here's one to bookmark: The Bing Maps Tour de France application! What makes this special, in the face of a lot of Tour mapping? Well, for starters, people using this function will be treated to course descriptions from the Podium Cafe! Follow me to the jump for more details...
So here's the opened page. It's just a lousy screenshot, though if you click on the image it gets slightly larger:
- The numbered squares in the upper left are the stage maps. Click on one -- like here, which is on stage 12, and you get the map.
- Each map has too many features for me to explain, but it's very user-friendly and fun.
- The left sidebar contains tabs for the race. Welcome and About are self explanatory; stages will show you, as displayed, the PdC description in brief; results will eventually give you what you'd expect there. Click on the stage # and the text opens.
- The top profile bar is interacting with the map. In this still, I put the cursor on the highest peak of the day, indicated by the vertical white line in the profile. That corresponds to the little blue square on the map with the bikes in it, showing you where that peak is. Play around and it will all make sense.
Read more in their blog post on the Tour app. Enjoy!