Dates26 August - 17 September WinnerAlexander Vinokourov (KAZ) SecondAlejandro Valverde (ESP)
The 2006 Vuelta a España was held from August 26 to September 17, 2006, and was the 61st edition of the race. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of 3,192 km, and was won by Alexander Vinokourov of the Astana cycling team. The points classification was won by Thor Hushovd of Crédit Agricole, and the mountains classification by Egoi Martínez of Discovery Channel.
In addition to the 20 UCI ProTour teams, Relax-GAM have received a wild card.
List of stages
Mountain stages with asterisk end on the top of the climb.
Stage recaps
Vuelta a España 2006, Stage 1 to Stage 11
Vuelta a España 2006, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Jersey progress
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.
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).[1]
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.
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.