2006 Tour de Romandie

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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. On 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 the two groups were 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 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[]

• Cyclingnews.com race page