BiciRace.com :: 2006 Tour de France

2006 Tour de France, Preview

93rd Tour de France - presented by

1 - 23 July

Preview

Startlist, Classifications, Tour Favorites, Team CSC versus T-Mobile
Stages and Maps, Key Stages, Overall Map
Photos, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Simoni and Saunier Duval-Prodir Updates
2005 Results

2006 Tour de France overall map

The Tour de France may have a new director in Christian Prudhomme, however, it seems that in spite of the change of leadership the old Tour format we have come to know will stay more or less the same for the 93rd edition.

Don't get me wrong. As unimaginative as the route may be, it's still the Tour de France. The sport's top teams and riders will all bring their "A" game, ready to throw down whatever they've got. It's July: people are on holiday, the mood is light and the racing is very fast. Does it get any better than that?

Ulle Tour Ready from Giro, photo: Makoto.Ayano/ CyclingTime.com

Affairs start with an opening prologue, a series of flat stages heading east, catering to the sprinters, transitioning into several mountain stages mixed with Massif Central stages (flat-medium mountains), before the final run into Paris (3,639K).

The 93rd Tour packs in a lot of time trial kilometers, but lacks a team version of the TT. We at BiciRace.com are happy to see the Team TT go missing, at least until they get the confusing rules straightened out. Affairs will kick off in Strasbourg on 1 July with a 7K prologue. Riders will then face another 52K test against the clock on stage 7, with the final individual time trial will on the penultimate day, 56K. It makes for a total of 115 kilometers for crono men like Basso and Ullrich.

The Italian Stallion, Basso, fast uphill and in TTs, photo: Makoto.Ayano/ CyclingTime.com

The mountains won't rear their ugly head until stage 10, at which point the peloton will face two successive days in the Pyrenean Mountains. Three stages of medium mountains and flats in the Massif Central will keep the riders warm as they head for their next grand appointment. Monday 17 July is a scheduled rest day, but my guess is that there will be little rest since the fearsome L'Alpe d'Huez will be looming over the rider's heads for the following day. After a flogging on the Alpe, the peloton will have another two days in the high mountains (La Toussuire and Col de Joux-Plane). There will be a total of 271K of climbing, with summit finishes only on three of the five mountain stages.

The high mountains do seem to come later in the race than the typical format. This should keep the action heated until close to the end, where the GC candidates will have to save some gas for the crucial final TT.

No-Fuss Floyd Landis Can Deliver, photo: Phonak

On paper this year's Tour will be the most open in years, seven to be exact. Cycling pundits either tip Ivan Basso or Jan Ullrich as the winner. Though they're not as likely to win, Alexander Vinokourov, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Cadel Evans and Michael Rasmussen are certainly capable of causing some problems for Basso and Ullrich.
- Paco

Read:
2006 Tour de France Route Revealed, 27 October 2005