The 2006 edition of the Paris–Nice

bicycle race "Bicycle Race" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album ''Jazz'' and written by Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury. It was released as a double A-side single together with the song " Fat Bottomed Girls", rea ...

was run from March 5 to March 12. The race was won by

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

rider Floyd Landis, of

Team Phonak Phonak () was a Swiss professional cycling team from 2000 until 2006. The team was one of 20 teams in the first UCI ProTour in 2005. It won one race – Santiago Botero's victory in the Tour de Romandie – and came second in the team ranking on ...

Stages

05-03-2006: Issy-les-Moulineaux – Issy-les-Moulineaux, 4.8 km. (Prologue, ITT)

The prologue stage saw 2005 GC winner

Bobby Julich Robert Julich ( ), popularly called Bobby Julich, (born on November 18, 1971, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for Team CSC in the UCI ProTour racing series. He got his international ...

retain the yellow/white GC leader's jersey after defeating Kazakh

Andrey Kaschechkin Andrey Grigorievich Kashechkin (russian: Андрей Григорьевич Кашечкин, born 21 March 1980) is a Kazakhstani road racing cyclist, who last rode for the UCI ProTour team . Biography Kashechkin was born in Kyzyl-Orda, in th ...

, who held the best time through most of the stage's duration, by a narrow margin of 1 second. As the winner of the first stage he also received the green/white points jersey. The blue jersey for best young rider went to

Alberto Contador Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice ( 2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015), and the V ...

06-03-2006: Villemandeur – Saint-Amand-Montrond, 193 km. (Stage 1)

By winning the

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sprint in

Saint-Amand-Montrond Saint-Amand-Montrond () is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France and the historical province of Bourbonnais. Saint-Amand-Montrond literally translates to Saint Amand round hill, despite not being on a rou ...

ahead of Allan Davis,

Tom Boonen Tom Boonen (; born 15 October 1980) is a Belgian former road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2002 and 2017 for the and teams and a professional racing driver who currently competes in Belcar, having previously competed in ...

(who finished fifth in the prologue stage five seconds down on

) took over the yellow/white jersey due to the time bonus awarded to stage winners. He also took over first place in the points classification. After a short solo breakaway effort by

David Zabriskie David Zabriskie (born January 12, 1979) is a retired professional road bicycle racer from the United States, who competed as a professional between 1999 and 2013. His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stag ...

, Frenchmen Cristophe Laurent and Stéphane Augé launched a long attack at the 60-km point but were caught by the chasing peloton only 2 km before the finish line. Augé was awarded the first red polka dotted jersey in the mountains classification.

07-03-2006: Cerilly – Belleville, 200 km. (Stage 2)

Stage 2 saw a repeat of

's victory over Allan Davis in the first stage, the Belgian finishing first in another bunch sprint. The polka-dotted mountains jersey changed hands due to a long breakaway by French rider Nicolas Crosbie, who established a maximum lead of 27'30" after 81 kilometers. Crosbie was caught by the peloton 10 km before the finish line. The blue jersey for the best young rider was awarded to

Benoît Vaugrenard Benoît Vaugrenard (; born 5 January 1982) is a French former road racing cyclist, who competed professionally for and its successors between 2003 and 2019. He competed in 11 Grand Tours: six times in the Tour de France, three times in the Giro ...

who took over first place with former leader

finishing 1'13 behind the pack.

08-03-2006: Julienas – Saint-Etienne, 168.5 km. (Stage 3)

In the third stage to Saint-Etienne, where Kazakh racer Andrei Kivilev died after a fall in the 2003 edition of Paris–Nice (prompting the UCI to make the wearing of helmets mandatory during all UCI-sanctioned races), there were some changes to the race classifications as American Floyd Landis took over first place in the GC, placing second in the stage after Patxi Xabier Vila Errandonea. Nicolas Crosbie and

retained their respective climber and sprinter jerseys, whereas the blue jersey for the best young rider was awarded to

Stefan Schumacher Stefan Schumacher (born 21 July 1981) is a German former professional road racing cyclist. Schumacher won the bronze medal in the road race at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships, two stages in the 2006 Giro d'Italia and two stages in the 2 ...

who finished 1'25 behind the winner. As expected of a hilly stage Stage 3 saw breakaway attempts on the different climbs, the defining break happening on the last climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de Chaubouret.

09-03-2006: Saint-Etienne – Rasteau, 193 km. (Stage 4)

10-03-2006: Avignon – Digne-les-Bains, 201.5 km. (Stage 5)

11-03-2006: Digne-les-Bains – Cannes, 179 km. (Stage 6)

12-03-2005: Nice – Nice, 135 km. (Stage 7)

General Standings

KOM Classification

Points Classification

Best Young Rider

Best Team

References

Race websitecyclingnews
{{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Paris-Nice Paris–Nice Paris-Nice Paris-Nice March 2006 sports events in Europe