2006 Tour de Romandie

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.

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.

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.

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.

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