By now we've got less than six months to go until the start of the Tour. I have this huge list of stuff that I need to arrange before the start, but I feel it is just too early to start buying and arranging stuff. So in order to satisfy my anticipation I've occupied myself with reading blogs of riders of previous Tours. Based on these blogs I've been able to get a pretty clear picture of the route and its division into separate stages. After determining the route and its 88 stages, I've put them into Google Earth and found myself able to make a fly-by movie. The movie shows the route from an altitude of approximately 5000 meters and completes the ca 11.500km in just 46 minutes, which is 15.000km per hour, which is about half the speed of the International Space Station.
Probably this shows that I just have too much time on my hands, but I quite like the final result. It properly shows the immensity of the challenge that lies ahead, and it also gives a pretty good impression of the desolate and almost extra-terrestrial landscapes that we will be cycling through. It also gives an idea of the changes in elevation, properly showing the Ethiopian Highlands, the Blue Nile Gorge, the Kenyan and Malawi Mountains and the Spreetshoogte in Namibia. So that's how i keep myself busy... please don't judge me for it... ;-)
