Google offers its own Tour de France

Internet giant uses its own technologies to give the handlebar view of the race – plus historic stages

GOOGLE has come up with its own interactive guide to the Tour de France with seven stages of this year’s race and three stages from the previous 99 races, including the very first race in 1903.

The internet giant uses the event to show the benefits of several of its own technologies such as Maps, Street View, YouTube and Google+ and its “Your Tour” pages show a handlebar view of the race.

Users can also follow the race live, watch YouTube videos and trace the route and profile of the stage to see what the riders face.

The three historic stages from 1903, 1954 and 1964 are already on line and the “live” stages are included as they are run.

Google includes only certain days – with yesterday’s time trial to Mont-Saint-Michel already on the site – and the next stage will be Sunday’s Bastille Day epic from Givors to the top of Mont Ventoux. Run on the Fête Nationale, this is the stage that every French rider wants to claim.

Yesterday, Team Sky's Chris Froome took second place in the time trial to Mont-Saint-Michel and extended his lead over Spaniard Alejandro Valverde to 3min 25sec.

Check out Your Tour The site is best viewed in Google Chrome browser.