The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Strasbourg with a prologue individual time trial on 1 July and Stage 11 occurred on 13 July with a mountainous stage to Val d'Aran in Spain. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, on 23 July.

Prologue 1 July 2006 — Strasbourg, (ITT)

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.

Prologue result and general classification after prologue Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 + 4" 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 + 6" 8 + 8" 9 + 9" 10 + 10"

Note: George Hincapie got to wear the green jersey, as a rider cannot wear two leading jerseys at the same time.

Stage 1 2 July 2006 — Strasbourg to Strasbourg,

Stage 1 was a largely flat sprinter stage with a category 4 climb up the small Côte de Heiligenstein about halfway through the stage at the mark, and three intermediate sprints throughout the length of the course. The sprints were in Saverne (at 53.0 km/32.9 mile), Plobsheim (137.0 km/85.1 mile), and Kehl (175.5 km/109.0 mile). The stage was a long loop, starting and finishing in Strasbourg.

An early breakaway consisting of Stéphane Augé (Cofidis), Walter Bénéteau (Bouygues Télécom), Unai Etxebarria (Euskaltel–Euskadi), Nicolas Portal (Caisse d'Epargne), Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues Télécom), Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux), and Fabian Wegmann (Team Gerolsteiner) formed by the mark and gained a lead of 4:35 over the main peloton before being caught in the last . That allowed Wegmann to take the polka dot jersey for winning the race up the lone climb.

A fast George Hincapie won two bonus seconds and with them the yellow jersey at the last sprint, despite a quick damage control operation by Sébastien Hinault who took the four second bonus to protect his captain, Thor Hushovd.

At the very end of the stage, Thor Hushovd (who was wearing the yellow jersey) made contact with a cardboard sign from green-jersey sponsor PMU held by a spectator. Hushovd cut his right arm badly, but was able to stay in the race.

Stage 1 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3Team Milram s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 1 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 2" 3 + 6" 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 + 8" 8 + 10" 9 + 11" 10 s.t.

Stage 2 3 July 2006 — Obernai to Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg),

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 Hernández. They were caught in the late climbs, and De La Fuente took over the polka dot jersey.

A crash in the last 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 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9Team Milram s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 2 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 5" 3 + 8" 4 + 10" 5 + 16" 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 + 18" 10 + 20"

Stage 3 4 July 2006 — Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg (Netherlands),

Like stage 2, stage 3 (216.5 km/134.5 miles long) has a rolling profile with six categorized climbs and three intermediate sprints. Starting in Luxembourg the stage passes through Belgium before finishing in Valkenburg in the Netherlands, which is also the traditional site of the finish in the Amstel Gold Race cycling classic.

The following are the categorized climbs: Côte de la Haute-Levée (Category 3 at 131 km/81.4 miles) Côte d'Oneux (Category 3 at 155 km/96.3 miles) Côte de Petit-Rechain (Category 4 at 165.5 km/102.8 miles) Loorberg (Category 4 at 189 km/117.4 miles) Trintelenberg (Category 4 at 201 km/124.9 miles) Cauberg (Category 3 at 215.5 km/133.9 miles)

There were also three intermediate sprints in Mersch (at 35 km/21.7 miles), Spa (144 km/89.5 miles), and Aubel (176.5 km/109.7 miles).

In this stage, the breakaway featured the following five riders: José Luis Arrieta, , Unai Extebarria, , Christophe Laurent, , Agritubel Jérôme Pineau, , Jens Voigt, ,

Jérôme Pineau concentrated mainly on finishing first in the climbs, which won him the polka dot jersey. Towards the end, most riders were expecting Jens Voigt to try to get away on his own, but he never did. Instead, Christophe Laurent twice got away, but was caught by the chasing four. Then, José Luis Arrieta got away from the others, but during the last climb of the day, the Cauberg, the peloton passed by him. The most important event of this stage was the loss of Alejandro Valverde, the leader in the ProTour, who broke his collarbone. Erik Dekker and Fred Rodriguez also crashed, and both suffered serious injuries.

The Cauberg, with its top just before the red banner from the finish line, was the ideal point for Matthias Kessler to get away from the peloton and take the victory. Sprinters Thor Hushovd and Robbie McEwen did not get over the Cauberg in the first part of the peloton. Therefore, Tom Boonen took the leads in both the general classification and the points classification, even though he finished fourth.

Stage 3 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 5" 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5Team Milram s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 3 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1" 3 + 5" 4 + 10" 5 + 15" 6 s.t. 7 + 16" 8 + 17" 9 s.t. 10 s.t.

Note: Daniele Bennati will be in the green jersey, as a rider cannot wear two leading jerseys at the same time.

Stage 4 5 July 2006 — Huy (Belgium) to Saint-Quentin,

Stage 4 was another sprinter's stage. The long stage had only two categorized climbs, both in the first . It started in Huy, Belgium and ended in Saint-Quentin in the northern part of France.

The two categorized climbs were Cote de Peu d'Eau (Category 3 at 13.0 km/8.1 miles) and Cote de Falaen (Category 4, 57.5 km/35.7 miles).

There were also three intermediate sprints in Beaumont (at 103.0 km/64.0 miles), Sains-du-Nord (135.5 km/84.2 miles) and Bernot (188.0 km/116.8 miles).

In this stage, the breakaway took place about into the stage and featured the following five riders: Cedric Coutouly, , Laurent Lefèvre, , Egoi Martínez, , Christophe Mengin, , Bradley Wiggins, ,

The peloton slowly caught them in the late going, with the lead group breaking up at about to the finish, and finally being caught within of the finish line.

Robbie McEwen won his second stage in a quick sprint. Just before the finish line, Julian Dean crashed in the middle of the peloton but did not take anyone else down. Thor Hushovd, who finished fourth, was disqualified for irregularities during sprinting and set back to last position of the group he finished in, which was position 148. This cost him 26 points for the green jersey which could prove vital in the end.

In the top 10 of the general classification, two new names appear, Robbie McEwen because of the 20-second bonus he received for finishing first, and Egoi Martínez, who won all three intermediate sprints and so moved up 18 seconds and into fifth position.

Stage 4 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 4 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1" 3 + 5" 4 + 7" 5 + 10" 6 + 12" 7 + 15" 8 s.t. 9 + 16" 10 + 17"

Stage 5 6 July 2006 — Beauvais to Caen,

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, , Bram de Groot, , Samuel Dumoulin, , Sebastian Lang, , Manuel Quinziato, , Daniele Righi, , Björn Schröder, , Team Milram Bram Tankink, , but 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 , and 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 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9Team Milram s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 5 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 13" 3 + 17" 4 s.t. 5 + 19" 6 + 24" 7 + 27" 8 + 28" 9 + 29" 10 s.t.

Stage 6 7 July 2006 — Lisieux to Vitré,

This somewhat shorter stage (189.0 km/117.4 miles) was also a sprinters' stage, with only one categorized climb: the Côte de la Hunière (Category 3 at 27.5 km/17.1 miles).

The three intermediate sprints were located in Villedieu-lès-Bailleul (at 46.0 km/28.6 miles), Chantrigné (at 116.5 km/72.3 miles) and Juvigné (162.5 km/101.0 miles).

In the beginning of the stage, many riders were trying to break away from the peloton to be part of the daily group of leaders, but in contrast to most earlier stages, it took a long time before finally a group got away from the peloton and was allowed to gain some time and distance. After the only categorized climb of the day, it's Giuseppe Guerini and David López who are just riding a few seconds in front of the peloton, followed by Jérôme Pineau, the holder of the polka dot jersey who successfully tried to enhance his lead in the king of the mountains classification. But the two leaders don't get away and at the first intermediate sprint in Villedieu-lès-Bailleul, new names pass the line first. Most important to remember is Benoît Vaugrenard winning the sprint and therefore taking 6 bonus seconds which move him past Markus Fothen in the classification for best young rider.