The 2006 Vuelta a España was held from 26 August to 17 September 2006, and was the 61st edition of the race. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Alexander Vinokourov of the cycling team. The points classification was won by Thor Hushovd of , and the mountains classification by Egoi Martínez of .
Teams and riders
In addition to the 20 UCI ProTour teams, Relax–GAM have received a wild card.
Route
StageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinner 1 26 August Málaga to Málaga Team time trial 2 27 August Málaga to Córdoba 3 28 August Córdoba to Almendralejo 4 29 August Almendralejo to Cáceres 5 30 August Plasencia to Estación de Esquí La Covatilla (Béjar) Mountain stage* 6 31 August Zamora to León 7 1 September León to Alto de El Morredero (Ponferrada) Mountain stage* 8 2 September Ponferrada to Lugo 9 3 September A Fonsagrada to Alto de La Cobertoria Mountain stage* 4 September Rest Day 10 5 September Avilés to Museo de Altamira (Santillana del Mar) 11 6 September Torrelavega (Velódromo Óscar Freire) to Burgos Mountain stage 12 7 September Aranda de Duero to Guadalajara 13 8 September Guadalajara to Cuenca 14 9 September Cuenca to Cuenca Individual time trial 15 10 September Motilla del Palancar to Factoría Ford (Almussafes) 11 Sept Rest Day 16 12 September Almería to Observatorio Astronómico de Calar Alto Mountain stage* 17 13 September Adra to Granada Mountain stage 18 14 September Granada to Sierra de la Pandera Mountain stage* 19 15 September Jaén to Ciudad Real 20 16 September Rivas Futura to Rivas Vaciamadrid Individual time trial 21 17 September Madrid to Madrid
Mountain stages with asterisk end on the top of the climb.
Race overview
Jersey progress
Stage(Winner) General classification Points Classification Mountains Classification Combination Classification Team Classification Stage 1 (TTT)(Team CSC) Carlos Sastre Carlos Sastre no award no award Stage 2 (Paolo Bettini) Thor Hushovd Paolo Bettini Mario De Sárraga Mario De Sárraga Stage 3 (Francisco Ventoso) Thor Hushovd David de la Fuente Stage 4 (Erik Zabel) Stage 5 (Danilo Di Luca) Danilo Di Luca Danilo Di Luca Danilo Di Luca Stage 6 (Thor Hushovd) Stage 7 (Alejandro Valverde) Janez Brajkovič Janez Brajkovič Janez Brajkovič Stage 8 (Alexander Vinokourov) Stage 9 (Alexander Vinokourov) Alejandro Valverde Pietro Caucchioli Alejandro Valverde Stage 10 (Sérgio Paulinho) Stage 11 (Egoi Martínez) Stage 12 (Luca Paolini) Stage 13 (Samuel Sánchez) Stage 14 (ITT)(David Millar) Stage 15 (Robert Förster) Stage 16 (Igor Antón) Stage 17 (Tom Danielson) Alexander Vinokourov Egoi Martínez Stage 18 (Andrei Kashechkin) Stage 19 (José Luis Arrieta) Alexander Vinokourov Stage 20 (ITT)(Alexander Vinokourov) Stage 21 (Erik Zabel) Final Alexander Vinokourov Thor Hushovd Egoi Martínez Alexander Vinokourov
Jersey wearers when same rider is holding multiple jerseys: Lars Bak wore the points jersey in stage 2 Paolo Bettini wore the points jersey in stages 4–5 Janez Brajkovič wore the white combination jersey in stages 6–7 José Miguel Elías wore the orange mountains jersey in stages 6–7 Danilo Di Luca wore the orange mountains jersey in stages 8–9 Alejandro Valverde wore the white combination jersey in stages 8–9 Carlos Sastre wore the white combination jersey in stages 8–16 Alexander Vinokourov wore the white combination jersey in stage 17 Andrey Kashechkin wore the white combination jersey in stage 19-21 When he has been 2nd in combination classification behind GC leader, Alejandro Valverde has worn white jersey of UCI ProTour leader. This happened on stages 8, 9, 19, 20 and 21.
Final standings
General classification (final)
RankRiderTeamTime1 Alexander Vinokourov 81h 23' 07"2 Alejandro Valverde 1' 12"3 Andrey Kashechkin 3' 12"4 Carlos Sastre 3' 35"5 José Ángel Gómez Marchante 6' 51"6 Tom Danielson 8' 09"7 Samuel Sánchez 8' 26"8 Manuel Beltrán 10' 36"9 Vladimir Karpets 10' 47"10 Luis Pérez Rodríguez 11' 32"
Points classification
In 2006, the leader of the points classification is awarded a blue with yellow-fish-covered jersey, which is sponsored by Spain's fishing and marine industry known as FROM (or El Fondo de Regulación y Organización del Mercado de Productos de la Pesca y Cultivos Marinos).
RankRiderTeamPoints1 Thor Hushovd 1992 Alexander Vinokourov 1633 Alejandro Valverde 1474 Samuel Sánchez 1075 Erik Zabel 1046 Stuart O'Grady 1047 Francisco Ventoso 998 Andrey Kashechkin 959 Carlos Sastre 9310 José Ángel Gómez Marchante 68
Mountains classification
In 2006, the leader of the climbers classification (or King of the Mountains) wears the orange jersey sponsored by Ford. In recent years, the KoM wore a red jersey.
RankRiderTeamPoints1 Egoi Martínez 1292 Pietro Caucchioli 1173 Alejandro Valverde 984 Andrey Kashechkin 845 Alexander Vinokourov 826 José Miguel ElíasRelax–GAM 707 Igor Antón 678 Carlos Sastre 639 José Ángel Gómez Marchante 6010 David Arroyo 58
Combination classification
In 2006, the leader of the combinations classification wears the white jersey. In 2005, the rider with the lowest cumulative rank of all classifications wore a gold-green jersey.
RankRiderTeamPoints1 Alexander Vinokourov 82 Alejandro Valverde 83 Andrey Kashechkin 154 Carlos Sastre 215 José Ángel Gómez Marchante 246 Samuel Sánchez 257 Tom Danielson 288 Egoi Martínez 319 Igor Antón 3910 Manuel Beltrán 43
Teams classification RankTeamTime1 201h 59' 16"2 15' 25"3 25' 33"4 32' 13"5 52' 56"6 1h 40' 02"7 1h 43' 20"8 2h 02' 55"9 Relax–GAM 2h 16' 26"10 2h 20' 33"
External links La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French) cyclingnews.com