2006 Tour de Romandie

French cyclist Rémy Di Gregorio during the Prologue

The 60th Tour de Romandie took place from April 25 through April 30. It is a six-stage cycling tour. It was won by Australian climber Cadel Evans of the Davitamon–Lotto who surprisingly won the final time trial stage and won the Overall Classification despite starting the time trial in the third overall position.

Stage Results

Prologue - April 25: Geneva ITT, 3.4km

The stage was a short individual time trial. Pre-Tour favorite, Jan Ullrich, a notable time trialist and Tour de France winner, underperformed; clocking only 4 minutes 53 seconds, almost 30 seconds behind the fastest time of the day.

Standings after Day One
Stage Tour (Leader's Jersey)
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Paolo Savoldelli  Italy Discovery Channel 4' 27" 1 Paolo Savoldelli  Italy Discovery Channel 4' 27"
2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 1" 2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 1"
3 Bradley McGee  Australia Française des Jeux + 4" 3 Bradley McGee  Australia Française des Jeux + 4"
4 Óscar Pereiro  Spain CEI + 7" 4 Óscar Pereiro  Spain CEI + 7"
5 László Bodrogi  Hungary C.A + 7" 5 László Bodrogi  Hungary C.A + 7"

Stage 1 - April 26: Payerne-Payerne , 169.0km

Standings after Day Two
Stage Tour (Leader's Jersey)
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Robbie McEwen  Australia Davitamon–Lotto 4h 10' 21" 1 Paolo Savoldelli  Italy Discovery Channel 4h 14' 48"
2 Mirco Lorenzetto  Italy MRM s.t. 2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 1"
3 Daniele Bennati  Italy Lampre–Fondital s.t. 3 Bradley McGee  Australia Française des Jeux + 2"
4 Enrico Gasparotto  Italy Liquigas s.t. 4 Robbie McEwen  Australia Davitamon–Lotto + 2"
5 Bram de Groot  Netherlands Rabobank s.t. 5 László Bodrogi  Hungary C.A + 7"

Stage 2 - April 27: Porrentruy-Porrentruy , 171.2km

Following an early breakaway by Swiss cyclists Roger Beuchat and David Loosli, which lasted for the majority of the stage, they were finally caught at the final climb of the day (less than 20 km from the finish), the 1st Category Col de la Croix; which is particularly steep at some points. One the climb itself a 15-man group which was led by Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez was quickly formed, including provisional leader Paolo Savoldelli, but excluding General Classement favorites Bradley McGee and Óscar Pereiro.

Following the climb, the descent led by specialist Savoldelli stretched the lead group out even further, and the leaders' group was split into two groups. With 5 km to go the second of thed two groups was looking to approach the lead, and Davitamon–Lotto's Christopher Horner used this as a springboard for his own attack, and managed to stay ahead of the chase group to take the stage.

Standings after Day Three
Stage Tour (Leader's Jersey)
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Christopher Horner  United States Davitamon–Lotto 4h 16' 22" 1 Christopher Horner  United States Davitamon–Lotto 8h 31' 11"
2 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 5" 2 Paolo Savoldelli  Italy Discovery Channel + 7"
3 Alexandre Moos   Switzerland Phonak + 5" 3 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 7"
4 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 8" 4 Alexandre Moos   Switzerland Phonak + 9"
5 Paolo Savoldelli  Italy Discovery Channel + 8" 5 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 11"

Stage 3 - April 28: Bienne-Leysin , 164.6km

Stage Three featured a relatively flat stage profile until the final 15 km, where the course shifted to a 1st Category climb up to the Swiss mountain resort of Leysin. A breakaway from the peloton after 25 km, led by Wouter Weylandt of the Quick-Step–Innergetic team, and joined by Jose Redondo Ramos of the Liberty Seguros team gained a quick lead, which expanded to a maximum of 9'20 minutes at around the 100 km mark.

The lead was reduced by the peloton to about three minutes at the start of the final climb of the day. On the climb, Ramos quickly shook off Weylandt, and started up the climb by himself. Several early attacks from out of the peloton were pulled back, but the first which succeeded was by Spanish T-Mobile Team climber Oscar Sevilla who quickly opened a lead of several hundred meters. He was shortly followed by Liquigas's Dario Cioni, and as the climb entered its steepest final stage, the solo leader Ramos was caught and passed.

A drive from the GC leaders in the group chasing Sevila and Cioni eventually led to the two being pulled in with several kilometer left to go, and as the climb approached the summit 23-year-old Spanish all-rounder Alberto Contador launched an attack up the hill that quickly gained a lead of 20 seconds, which was held until the summit and the finish.

A notable underperformance of the stage was Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli, 2nd in the GC that day, who suffered from diarrhoea and had to stop several times during the stage, and eventually lost 12 minutes on the leaders. Also Overall Leader Christopher Horner and local favorite Alexandre Moos were not able to keep up with the blistering pace on the final climb and both lost over a minute to stage winner Contador.

Standings after Day Four
Stage Tour (Leader's Jersey)
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Alberto Contador  Spain LSW 4h 03' 41" 1 Alberto Contador  Spain LSW 12h 35' 01"
2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 24" 2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 16"
3 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto + 24" 3 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 28"
4 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 26" 4 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto + 28"
5 Sergio Ghisalberti  Italy MRM + 30" 5 Miguel Ángel Perdiguero  Spain Phonak + 49"

Stage 4 - April 29: Sion-Sion , 127.7km

Standings after Day Five
Stage Tour (Leader's Jersey)
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI 3h 41' 24" 1 Alberto Contador  Spain LSW 16h 16' 25"
2 Alexandre Moos   Switzerland Phonak s.t. 2 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 6"
3 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto s.t. 3 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto + 24"
4 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW s.t. 4 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 28"
5 Sylvester Szmyd  Poland Lampre–Fondital s.t. 5 Sergio Ghisalberti  Italy MRM + 54"

Stage 5 - April 30: Lausanne ITT, 20.4km

The stage was an individual time trial. Cadel Evans rode superbly in the last few kilometers, taking the provisional lead, and when General Classement leader Alberto Contador and close GC number 2 Alejandro Valverde both lost more than 50 seconds to Evans, the Australian all-rounder rode to overall victory.

Day Six results and Final Standing
Stage Top-5 Overall
# Name Team Time   # Name Team Time
1 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto 26' 19" 1 Cadel Evans  Australia Davitamon–Lotto 16h 43' 08"
2 Leif Hoste  Belgium Discovery Channel + 22" 2 Alberto Contador  Spain LSW + 27"
3 Bobby Julich  United States Team CSC + 38" 3 Alejandro Valverde  Spain CEI + 44"
4 Andrey Kashechkin  Kazakhstan LSW + 44" 4 Jörg Jaksche  Germany LSW + 54"
5 Serguei Gonchar  Ukraine T-Mobile Team + 44" 5 Andrey Kashechkin  Kazakhstan LSW + 1' 24"

External links

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