
site map

le Tour de France, 2006 -
a new era starts

site for le Tour de France (with daily reports during the race)

Time schedules of the 2007 Tour de France stages (and other links)

[also the original pages in French]

Live daily reports

2006 Tour de France poster - a clever way of making a map of France

23.07.06 floyd landis wins
what it takes to get to the top - landis

tour blasted wide open as main contenders are accused of doping

Accused are Basso [CSC], Ullrich [T-Mobile], Mancebo [Ag2r] who finished second, third and fourth last year, also Vinokorov and several others. Denials are also flying.

Meanwhile, the fossil media London Times is found guilty of libel after accusing Armstrong of drug taking.

and we’re off on the trek of
3,657.1 kilometres, or 2,272 miles

Use this link at the France de Tour site for live updates as each stage progresses. There are side-bar links to other useful pages.

Today’s results for the traditional short individual prologue against-the-clock:

Thor Hushovd (NOR) C.A - 7.1km in 8’17" [Yellow jersey]
George Hincapie (USA) DSC at 01"
Dave Zabriskie (USA) CSC at 04"
Sebastian Lang (Ger) GST at 05"
Alejandro Valverde (ESP) CEI at 05"

Last year, George Hincapie was a main wing-man to Lance Armstrong in the Discovery Channel team, coming in 14th place overall. He must now be regarded as a major contender. The others in the first five are either sprinters, or dropped out during the Tour last year.

the 2006 Tour de France

The ninety-third edition of the Tour de France starts on Saturday 1st July, and after doing an arduous round tour of France and a bit of the Spanish Pyrenees, finishes at the Champs-Élysées, Paris on Sunday 23th July.

After a record seven Tour victories, the great Armstrong has retired - though I can hardly believe it. I keep expecting him to join on the start line. A Tour without Armstrong, next it’ll be a Tour without the bikes.

This year the race is open and looking for a new master of the drama.

Map of the Tour de France, 2006

There are 20 stages, of which five are mountain stages [Pyrenees 2, Alps 3] and two are individual against-the-clock [contre-le-montre] time trials. The first day - the prologue - is a short time trial. The total distance ridden will be 3,657.1 kilometres, or 2,272 miles.

P	Strasbourg 1 July [time trial - 7.1km TT]	11	Tarbes/Val d'Aran - Pla-de-Beret (Spain) 13 July [203.5 km]
1	Strasbourg/Strasbourg 2 July [184.5 km]	12	Luchon/Carcassonne 14 July [211.5 km]
2	Obernai/Esch-sur-Alzette 3 July [228.5 km]	13	Béziers/Montélimar 15 July [230 km]
3	Esch-sur-Alzette/Valkenburg 4 July [216.5 km]	14	Montélimar/Gap 16 July [180.5 km]
4	Huy/Saint-Quentin 5 July [207 km]	R	Gap 17 July
5	Beauvais/Caen 6 July [225 km]	15	Gap/L'Alpe d'Huez 18 July [187 km]
6	Lisieux/Vitré 7 July [189 km]	16	Bourg d'Oisans/La Toussuire 19 July [182 km]
7	Saint-Grégoire/Rennes 8 July [52 km TT]	17	Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne/Morzine 20 July [200.5 km]
8	Saint-Méen-le-Grand/Lorient 9 July [181 km]	18	Morzine-Avoriaz/Mâcon 21 July [197 km]
R	Bordeaux 10 July	19	Le Creusot/Montceau-les-Mines 22 July [57 km TT]
9	Bordeaux/Dax 11 July [169.5 km]	20	Sceaux-Antony/Paris Champs-Élysées 23 July [154.5 km]
10	Cambo-les-Bain/Pau 12 July [190.5 km]

This year, there are 22 teams, with nine participating riders in each. The number for the lead rider in each team ends in -1, that is 1, 11, 21, 31 etc. [Note that the Würth Team has withdrawn as they no longer have sufficient team members after excluded cyclists implicated in doping. So now there are 21 teams participating.]

The teams are:

AG2R Prévoyance [A2R]	Agritubel [AGR]	Bouygues Télécom [BTL]
Confidis [COF]	Crédit Agricole [C.A]	Davitamon-Lotto [DVL]
Discovery Channel [DSC]	Euskaltel-Euskadi [EUS]	Française des Jeux [FDJ]
Gerolsteiner [GST]	Lampre-Fondital [LAM]	Liquigas [LIQ]
Phonak Hearing Systems [PHO]	Quickstep-Innergetic [QSI]	Rabobank [RAB]
Saunier Duval-Prodier [SDV]	T-Mobile Team [TMO]	Team CSC [CSC]
Team Milram [MRM]	Würth Team [LSW]

There will be 110 hours of live broadcasting on France 2 and France 3. This Tour de France page lists broadcasters world-wide who will be following the Tour.

the prizes

The winner of a day’s stage wins 8,000 euro
The yellow jersey winner - fastest time overall in the general time classification: 450,000 euro
The green jersey winner - winning the most points. Points are given to winners of intermediate and final sprint on each stage: 25,000 euro
The spotted jersey winner - best mountain climber, winning mountain points when going over summits and intermediate difficulties: 25,000 euro
The white jersey winner - best under 25 y.o. in the general time classification: 20,000 euro.
Combativity prize - chosen by a specialist cycling jury: 20,000 euro
Best team by time - lowest time after adding together the times of the three best members of each team at each stage: 50,000 euro

last year (2005): the first thirty riders

The overall time taken was 88h 15' 02", average speed 41.654 km/h, over 3,608 km.

Pos.	N°	Name	First name	Team	Nat.	Time diff.
1	001	ARMSTRONG	Lance	DSC	USA
2	021	BASSO	Ivan	CSC	ITA	04' 40"
3	011	ULLRICH	Jan	TMO	GER	06' 21"
4	031	MANCEBO	Francisco	IBA	ESP	09' 59"
5	019	VINOKOUROV	Alexandre	TMO	KAZ	11' 01"
6	164	LEIPHEIMER	Levi	GST	USA	11' 21"
7	057	RASMUSSEN	Mickael	RAB	DEN	11' 33"
8	044	EVANS	Cadel	DVL	AUS	11' 55"
9	066	LANDIS	Floyd	PHO	USA	12' 44"
10	068	PEREIRO SIO	Oscar	PHO	ESP	16' 04"
11	101	MOREAU	Christophe	C.A	FRA	16' 26"
12	007	POPOVYCH	Yaroslav	DSC	UKR	19' 02"
13	151	MAZZOLENI	Eddy	LAM	ITA	21' 06"
14	004	HINCAPIE	George	DSC	USA	23' 40"
15	199	ZUBELDIA	Haimar	EUS	ESP	23' 43"
16	096	JAKSCHE	Jorg	LSW	GER	24' 07"
17	023	JULICH	Bobby	CSC	USA	24' 08"
18	017	SEVILLA	Oscar	TMO	ESP	27' 45"
19	108	KASHECHKIN	Andrey	C.A	KAZ	28' 04"
20	012	GUERINI	Giuseppe	TMO	ITA	33' 02"
21	026	SASTRE	Carlos	CSC	ESP	34' 24"
22	039	ZANDIO	Xabier	IBA	ESP	36' 20"
23	087	PIEPOLI	Leonardo	SDV	ITA	36' 20"
24	052	BOOGERD	Michael	RAB	NED	38' 29"
25	009	SAVOLDELLI	Paolo	DSC	ITA	44' 30"
26	161	TOTSCHNIG	Georg	GST	AUT	49' 14"
27	202	ASTARLOZA	Mikel	A2R	ESP	54' 03"
28	143	BROCHARD	Laurent	BTL	FRA	55' 29"
29	172	CASAR	Sandy	FRA	FDJ	56' 47"
30	002	AZEVEDO	José	DSC	POR	59' 48"

Click here for the full 2005 Tour de France results list.

Some history

The first Tour de France took place in 1903, with a first stage from Montgeron to Lyon, lasting an overwhelming 467 kilometres. There were six stages. The first Tour was 2,428 kilometers long and the prize was 6,075 francs.

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