2006 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 11

These are the profiles for the individual stages in the 2006 Tour de France, with the Prologue on July 1, Stage 1 on July 2, and Stage 11 on July 13.

tages

=Prologue - Saturday, July 1: Strasbourg ITT, 7.1 km=

The prologue is a short (7.1 km/4.4 mile), completely flat, time trial, as is customary. It took place in the French city of Strasbourg.

Thor Hushovd, the 2004 and 2005 Norwegian National Time Trial Cycling Champion, captured a third stage win and second yellow jersey in his career.

tage 2 - Monday, July 3: Obernai - Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg), 228.5 km

Stage 2 started in the small French town of Obernai and ended in Luxembourg and is the second longest of the Tour. This stage is 228.5 km/141.9 miles long with rolling terrain. It has five categorized climbs (two Category 3 and three Category 4):
*Col des Pandours (Category 3 at 35.5 km/22.0 miles)
*Col de Valsberg (Category 3 at 50.0 km/31.1 miles)
*Côte de Kedange-sur-Canner (Category 4 at 187.5 km/116.5 miles)
*Côte de Kanfen (Category 4 at 212.5 km/132.0 miles)
*Côte de Volmerange-les-Mines (Category 4 at 215.0 km/133.5 miles)

There were three intermediate sprints in Marimont-lès-Bénestroff (at 107.0 km/66.5 miles), Holling (169.5 km/105.3 miles), and Yutz (198.5 km/123.3 miles).

The stage was primarily dominated by a two-man breakaway almost at the start by David De La Fuente and Aitor Hernandez. They were caught in the late climbs, and De La Fuente took over the polka dot jersey.

A crash in the last 2 km (1.2 miles) slowed the peloton considerably, although they were all credited with the same time as the leaders. Thor Hushovd reclaimed the yellow jersey due to sprint bonuses.

Stage 2 Result

General Classification after Stage 3

tage 5 - Thursday, July 6: Beauvais - Caen, 225 km

Stage 5 is a long (225.0 km/139.8 mile) sprinters stage with four categorized climbs (all Category 4) and the usual three intermediate sprints. The stage started in Beauvais and ended in Caen in northern France (in the Normandy region).

The following were the categorized climbs:
*Mont des Fourches (Category 4 at 10.5 km/6.5 miles)
*Côte du Buquet (Category 4 at 109.0 km/67.7 miles)
*Côte de Saint-Grégoire-du-Vièvre (Category 4 at 134.5 km/83.5 miles)
*Côte du Boulay (Category 4 at 159.0 km/98.8 miles).

The three intermediate sprints were located in Les Andelys (at 66.5 km/41.3 miles), Saint-Georges-du-Vièvre (at 140.5 km/87.3 miles) and Pont-L’Evêque (at 175.0 km/108.7 miles).

Early in this stage, eight riders tried to get away from the peloton:
*Stéphane Augé, FRA, Cofidis
*Bram de Groot, NED, Rabobank
*Samuel Dumoulin, FRA, AG2R Prévoyance
*Sebastian Lang, GER, Team Gerolsteiner
*Manuel Quinziato, ITA, Liquigas
*Daniele Righi, ITA, Lampre-Fondital
*Björn Schröder, GER, Team Milram
*Bram Tankink, NED, Quick Step-Innergeticbut the peloton did not let them get away very far until Dumoulin and Schröder broke away from the group. The other six were caught and Dumoulin and Schröder were allowed to take a lead of up to 12'50" over the peloton. Meanwhile the sprinters in the peloton did not want to sprint for the 2 points left at the three intermediate sprints, so every time Johan Van Summeren attacked just a few kilometers before every sprint to take the points. Jérôme Pineau also was very active today, as he did the same thing as Van Summeren but then on the climbs, taking points to maintain his lead in the standings for the polka dot jersey.

In the end, Dumoulin and Schröder were caught about 2 kilometres from the finish line as Quick Step-Innergetic, Davitamon-Lotto and Crédit Agricole had driven hard to close the gap. In the sprint, surprisingly Óscar Freire popped up out of nowhere to take the stage win. Tom Boonen finished second, took 12 bonus seconds and thereby insured that he was going to be wearing the yellow jersey at least one more day.

Stage 5 Result

General Classification after Stage 6

tage 8 - Sunday, July 9: Saint-Méen-le-Grand - Lorient, 181 km

Stage 8 (181.0 km/112.5 miles in length) had a somewhat rolling profile, with four categorized climbs and three intermediate sprints. The weather was also a factor with the ocean winds blowing. The four climbs were as follows:
*Côte de Mûr-de-Bretagne (Category 3 at 75.0 km/46.6 miles)
*Côte de Saint-Mayeux (Category 4 at 78.5 km/48.8 miles)
*Côte de Gouarec (Category 4 at 94.0 km/58.4 miles)
*Côte de Ty Marrec (Category 4 at 138.5 km/86.0 miles)

The three intermediate sprints were located in Plessala (at 38.0 km/23.6 miles), Locmalo (112.5 km/69.9 miles) and Plouay (142.0 km/88.2 miles).

In Stage 8, a group of five riders formed after about 50 kilometres (31 miles), consisting of the following riders:
*Mario Aerts, BEL, Davitamon-Lotto
*Sylvain Calzati, FRA, AG2R Prévoyance
*Kjell Carlström, FIN, Liquigas
*Matthias Kessler, GER, T-Mobile Team
*David Zabriskie, USA, Team CSCwith Patrice Halgand, FRA, Crédit Agricole making the jump from the peloton to the leading group on his own before the gap became too big which made the final number of escapees in the breakaway group of this stage six.

The peloton, mainly under influence of Phonak Hearing Systems, did not let the lead grow too much, since Zabriskie and Kessler were both standing 2'03" behind the leader, or just 1'03 behind Phonak's leader, Floyd Landis. As the race progressed and the lead of the leaders was brought back from its maximum of 7'30 to about 3'30, the riders from the Phonak team stopped chasing as it was the sprinter's teams to start chasing and close the final gap. However, most teams were probably afraid of Davitamon-Lotto's Robbie McEwen as he had impressively won three sprinters' stages in this tour already, so there were no chasing riders from Quick Step-Innergetic (for Tom Boonen), no riders from Lampre-Fondital (for Daniele Bennati) and no riders also for Davitamon-Lotto as they already had Mario Aerts in the lead. The only team that kept chasing was Française des Jeux, because they were the least successful French team so far in the tour and the lead group featured two riders from other French teams.

Meanwhile, in the lead group, Sylvain Calzati had stormed away from the other five escapees with about 30 kilometres (18 miles) to go, only to be chased after somewhat later by Patrice Halgand and Kjell Carlström. The other three riders mainly looked at each other and did not believe they could stay out of the peloton's grip. However, the peloton would catch up with those three non-believers, but the other three were not to be caught before the finish line. Sylvain Calzati proved to be too strong for the other two as they coöperated to get back to him but never saw him again before Lorient, instead the gap only became bigger. In the end Sylvain Calzati scored his most beautiful professional victory of his career as he came over the finish line more than two minutes ahead of Carlström and Halgand, who both just ended a few seconds before the peloton. In the peloton, Robbie McEwen again won the sprint, enlarging his lead in the standings for the green jersey over the other sprinters.

In the top 10 of the general standings and best young rider classification, nothing changed as all the main contenders finished together in the peloton. The polka dot jersey also remained with Jérôme Pineau.

The intermediate sprints of this stage did not have any major influence on the classification for the best sprinter, but David Zabriskie, who was part of the breakaway group, took 10 bonus seconds and so moved into ninth position overall and reduced his deficit to 1'53" from the leader Serhiy Honchar.

Sylvain Calzati did not only win the stage, he also came through first on top of all classified climbs of the day. He scored 4 points for de Mûr-de-Bretagne and 3 points for the three other côtes which made him end with 13 points and this moved him into fourth position in the polka dot jersey standings.

;Stage 8 Result

;General Classification after Stage 9

"Note:" Juan Miguel Mercado got to wear the polka dot jersey, as a rider cannot wear two leading jerseys at the same time. (Dessel leads polka dot jersey standings as well.)

tage 11 - Thursday, July 13: Tarbes - Val d'Aran, Pla-de-Beret (Spain), 207 km

at 1830 m.

In contrast to the previous stage, many fewer riders were interested in joining an early breakaway group as the stage featured over 60 kilometers of climbing. 17.5 kilometres into the stage, at the first sprint, there were still no riders who had escaped and so Robbie McEwen saw the possibility of going for it. He succeeded, but mainly due to the fact that the other sprinters did not even challenge him; this means that they have probably given up for the green jersey. It seems now that McEwen just needs to make it to Paris to win that green jersey.

Not much later, four riders did get away from the peloton. They included three Spaniards:
* Iker Camaño from Euskaltel-Euskadi,
* David de la Fuente from Saunier Duval-Prodir and
* Juan Antonio Flecha from Rabobank.They left, together with Fabian Wegmann, the German from Team Gerolsteiner. All this happened before the first climb of the day, the Col du Tourmalet. On the Tourmalet, Wegmann and de la Fuente looked to be somewhat stronger than their two companions as they both sprinted to finish first on the top. De la Fuente won the sprint and so took the most points for the polka dot jersey, but also he won the "Souvenir Jacques Goddet" for coming through first on the top of the highest climb in the Pyrenees of this Tour which rendered him 5000 Euros. In the peloton, the team of AG2R Prévoyance maintained the tempo to keep the leaders within reasonable distance and thus protect their yellow jersey. Thomas Voeckler won the sprint against Michael Rasmussen for the remaining points on top of the Tourmalet and he kept going. Although the leaders were about 4 minutes ahead at that time, he thought it would be useful to go after them on his own. At first, his plan appeared to be correct, as he closed the gap during the descent and managed to climb faster than the leaders on the Col d'Aspin. Halfway up the Aspin he was only 2'30" behind, on top of the Aspin only 1'30". The four leaders stayed together on the Aspin, with now Wegmann sprinting faster than de la Fuente at the top. In the peloton, Rasmussen again took the points, but nothing more happened.

who took over from the guys from AG2R Prévoyance and pumped up the pace. As a result, the peloton grew thinner and thinner, until only 19 riders remained:
*David Arroyo, ESP, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears,
*José Azevedo, POR, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team,
*Michael Boogerd, NED, Rabobank,
*Damiano Cunego, ITA, Lampre-Fondital,
*Cadel Evans, AUS, Davitamon-Lotto,
*Markus Fothen, GER, Team Gerolsteiner,
*Andreas Klöden, GER, T-Mobile Team,
*Floyd Landis, USA, Phonak Hearing Systems,
*Levi Leipheimer, USA, Team Gerolsteiner,
*Denis Menchov, RUS, Rabobank,
*Christophe Moreau, FRA, AG2R Prévoyance,
*Iván Parra, COL, Cofidis,
*Michael Rasmussen, DEN, Rabobank,
*Michael Rogers, AUS, T-Mobile Team,
*Carlos Sastre, ESP, Team CSC,
*Fränk Schleck, LUX, Team CSC,
*Gilberto Simoni, ITA, Saunier Duval-Prodir,
*Georg Totschnig, AUT, Team Gerolsteiner and
*Haimar Zubeldia, ESP, Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Cyril Dessel, the holder of the yellow jersey, was already about 2 minutes behind at that time. In the valley that came between the Col du Portillon and Pla-de-Beret, Arroyo and Cunego broke away from that elite group and closed the gap to de la Fuente, but they were all caught even before the climb towards Pla-de-Beret. On the last climb it was due to some extraordinary work by Michael Boogerd that the group kept getting smaller and smaller, with only five riders remaining in the end:
*Cadel Evans, AUS, Davitamon-Lotto,
*Floyd Landis, USA, Phonak Hearing Systems,
*Levi Leipheimer, USA, Team Gerolsteiner,
*Denis Menchov, RUS, Rabobank and
*Carlos Sastre, ESP, Team CSC.

Evans and Sastre had to give in at the end and finished only 17 seconds behind the other three who sprinted for the victory at the top. Menchov outsprinted both Americans and won the stage, the third stage victory already for Rabobank during this Tour. In the General Classification, Floyd Landis became the leader and thus holder of the yellow jersey, as Cyril Dessel finished 4'45" behind, the exact time he was in front of Landis before the stage—but since Landis finished third, he won 8 bonus seconds and so he moved into the lead with an eight-second advantage.

Looking at the "lesser climbers," 37 riders just managed to avoid being disqualified for finishing late, as a group of 36 came in 44'20" behind Denis Menchov and Christophe Mengin even managed to finish 46'13" behind. The time limit was about 46'30". Amongst this group were sprinters Robbie McEwen, Thor Hushovd and Óscar Freire. Tom Boonen would have been delighted to see them finish late as he was in an earlier group. Being on time however, Robbie McEwen remains in the green jersey. Cyril Dessel not only lost his yellow jersey; he also lost the polka dot jersey, which went to David de la Fuente—who also got the combativity award for the day. Of the youngsters, only Markus Fothen was able to keep up with the pace during the day, he now has a big lead of exactly twelve minutes over the number two in the young riders' classification and almost half an hour or more over all the other youngsters in this tour.

Other news in this stage:
* Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team completely broke down today, with their four best riders completely failing. José Azevedo was behind 4'10", Yaroslav Popovych 6'25", George Hincapie 21'23" and Paolo Savoldelli 23'04".
* A lot was expected from Andreas Klöden as his T-Mobile Team took the lead and determined the pace during the Col du Portillon. However he did not compete for the stage win and had to give in 1'31", a bit disappointing. This loss is small and leaves him sixth in the general classification, still with possibilities. T-Mobile also takes back the lead in the team classification and has led of 46 seconds over Team Gerolsteiner.
* Iban Mayo, struggling the day before already, had trouble getting up the climbs from the first few meters yet again. He was also extremely annoyed by the cameraman following him and filming his struggle, as that camerman knew Mayo was probably going to give up and was waiting for him to do so. In the end Mayo was fined for 200 Swiss Francs for incorrect behaviour in front of the camera. He abandoned when the cameraman stopped following him.
* Other quitters on this day were Giovanni Lombardi and Wilfried Cretskens.
* Sébastien Joly, who had been the last man in the standings for a while before this stage, managed to pass Wim Vansevenant who is now the new lanterne rouge.

;Stage 11 Result

;General Classification After Stage 11

ee also