I know it's a bit much to expect to find rabid enthusiasm for both flight simulation and the Tour de France in the same person or persons who also happens to possess the expertise necessary to develop scenery add-ons. But if such a person exists, wouldn't it be great to create an add-on that would simulate the TdF peloton as it winds its way along the roads of France, so that a FS helicopter pilot could simulate flying a TV camera helicopter?You'd probably have to add some roads that FS9 has left out, but that seems doable. You'd have to add at a minimum a moving peloton, but if boats and other aircraft can move, that seems doable, too. You probably wouldn't need a hundred or so individual bikes...I think you could get a reasonable simulation with a minimum of maybe three or four packs of bikes to simulate breakaways, the main pack, and laggards. Probably, though, you'd need smaller groups of riders to make them flow evenly around curves.And if you wanted to get really fancy, you could even simulate the changing positions of the leaders and various teams, as this data is updated at frequent intervals during each stage. Scenery landmarks and picturesque towns along the way would be a nice touch, too, but perhaps too labor-intensive since they'd only be used for a few minutes.I haven't yet learned how to fly a FS helicopter yet, but if such an add-on were available, I'd sure learn.

IIRC on the 2000 and maybe 2001 tours you could download some program called Terra something-or-other, and scenery for the mountain stages. You could then fly the route. With a decent mesh, if there was something like USA Roads for France (and I guess Belgium and Spain), you could achieve about the same thing in FS9. I don't think you need the peloton. Just use the online real time summaries. Looking forward to ITT Etage 16 sur L'Alpe D'huezscott s..