Bing Maps Provides A New View of the 2010 Tour de France
Bing Maps launched its 2010 Tour de France map app for cycling enthusiasts around the world today. It allows users to preview the course, view the race in progress and check the standings of participating teams.
This is the latest offering from Bing Maps as it continues to differentiate itself from Google Maps, part of the larger Bing strategy to appeal to groups of specialized searchers bound by shared enthusiasm.
Bing says the best 2010 Tour de France map experience is the Bird’s Eye view. “We’ve reprojected the ortho photos to provide a unique visual context; however, that combined with the elevation information gives you a great feel for just how tough these hills really are,” said Chris Pendleton in a Bing Maps blog post.
Ortho photos are aerial images that have been corrected for lens distortion and the Earth’s curvature, so they may be used to accurately measure distance.
This year's Tour de France runs from Saturday, July 3 to Sunday, July 25. Starting with a prologue segment in Rotterdam followed by 20 individual races called stages, the race will cover a total of about 2,263 miles (3,642 kilometers) — roughly the distance from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles — over the three weeks.
Each stage is displayed on the map along with pushpins to indicate the start and finish and important waypoints including feed zones and hill climbs. Along the top of the map is an interactive profile where users can see elevation and slope changes for the selected stage. The stage description and weather prediction are shown in the "Stages" tab on the left panel. Fans can view daily results in the "Results" tab.
Bing offers 37 map apps in addition to the Tour de France, including World Cup for soccer fans, local Parking Finder for travelers in cities and airports, Worldwide Telescope for stargazers, and Newseum to browse the front pages of newspapers from around the world.
Expect more map apps in the coming months from developers competing in King of Bing Maps contest that closes for entries July 25.
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