Paris Thover has done the hard work of transferring detailed Tour de France 2009 route information to Google Maps and Google Earth files. It’s pretty cool stuff. Click here to see it all.

Mentioned also with some discussion at the Google Earth blog.

If haven’t tried using Google Earth, here’s what Stage 15 looks like using that software.

Here are some of the names I’m following during the Tour de France 2009. You’ll note my American bias here.

Franke Steele aka @TdFblog.

Astana

@TeamAstana.

Lance Armstrong.

Team Astana director Johan Bruyneel.

Garmin Slipstream

@TeamSlipStream.

@JakesJournal from Garmin is in France.

Jonathan Vaughters director of Team Garmin-Slipstream.

David Zabriskie.

Christian Van de Velde.

Levi Leipheimer.

Columbia HTC

@TeamColubmiaHTC.

George Hincapie.

Michael Rogers.

Update for USA / Canada: For a fee, you can watch broadcast video of each stage of the Tour de France live at Versus Tour de France Race Tracker.

All of the usual suspects will have Tour de France video recaps on their websites, but live streaming options for viewing the Tour de France are fairly restricted. Links below the photo.

Tour de France official site will have live updates during each stage.

Cycling.TV will have highlights videos each day.

Versus TdF page.

Velonews generally posts videos of rider and coach interviews and the like.

Steephill.TV is probably the best place to turn for the latest video links.

Post your secret, pirated streaming feed to Bike Hugger TdF Hub.

See also: Tour de France for Dummies.

The Tour de France 2009 will be televised in the United States on VERSUS with live coverage every morning of every stage, replays during the day, and “expanded” coverage during primetime each evening.

View the complete TV schedule at Versus.com.

Many people are upset that Chris Horner was passed over when Team Astana selected the Tour de France team. I can’t imagine the extreme disappointment that Horner felt. He asked to be released from Astana so he could try to join another team’s squad, but Astana’s team director Johan Bruyneel denied him.

Steve Hill has his commentary and links out to more articles. See also Velonews: Horner left off Astana Tour roster.

The Tour de France 2009 begins this weekend.

Wow. Two stages of the Tour de France will be run without race radio.

Parts of the 2009 Tour of California was plagued with technical difficulties reportedly due to the weather. Ineffective race radio made the race a lot more uncertain for the riders since team directors couldn’t relay information to the riders, and those of us following the race had no clue what was going on.

It’s a controversial decision by race organizers: The Tour de France wants to ban the race radios completely, but teams and riders say they depend on the radios for safety. Taking the radios away puts team leadership squarely back on the cyclists and benefits the those who can quarterback, think quickly and react to conditions on the ground.

Updates:

• Stage 10: Radio Free Europe
• UCI to limit radio technology [parody]

What do you think?

More:

• First Edition Cycling News.
• Boulder Report.