View source for 2006 Tour of California

{{Infobox cycling race report
| name               = 2006 Tour of California
| image              = 
| image_caption      = 
| image_size         = 
| series             = [[UCI America Tour]]
| race_no            =
| series_no          =
| date               = February 19&ndash;26, 2006
| stages             = 7+Prologue
| distance           = 700
| unit               = mi
| time               = 
| speed              = 
| first              = [[Floyd Landis]]
| first_nat          = USA
| first_team         = {{UCI team code|PHO|2006}}
| first_color        = yellow
| second             = [[David Zabriskie]]
| second_nat         = USA
| second_team        = {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}}
| third              = [[Bobby Julich]]
| third_nat          = USA
| third_team         = {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}}
| mountains          = [[Levi Leipheimer]]
| mountains_nat      = USA
| mountains_team     = {{UCI team code|GST|2006}}
| mountains_color    = red
| youth              = [[Tom Peterson (cyclist)|Tom Peterson]]
| youth_nat          = USA
| youth_team         = {{UCI team code|GRM|2006}}
| youth_color        = white
| sprints            = [[Olaf Pollack]]
| sprints_nat        = GER
| sprints_team       = {{UCI team code|TMO|2006}}
| sprints_color      = green
| team               = {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}}
| previous =
| next = [[2007 Tour of California|2007]]
}}

The '''2006 [[Tour of California]]'''  was the inaugural edition of a professional [[road bicycle racing|road cycling]] [[stage race]] that made its debut on February 19, 2006. Sponsored by the [[biotechnology]] company [[Amgen]], the eight-day, {{convert|700|mi|km}} race started in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], winding its way down the [[California]] coast to finish in [[Redondo Beach, California|Redondo Beach]]. With eight of the twenty European [[UCI ProTour]] teams in attendance, the inaugural Tour of California proved to be one of the largest cycling races in the United States since the demise of the [[Coors Classic]] in 1988.

Among the professional cyclists in attendance were [[George Hincapie]] ({{UCI team code|DSC|2006}}), [[Floyd Landis]] ({{UCI team code|PHO|2006}}), [[Chris Horner]] and [[Freddy Rodriguez (cyclist)|Freddy Rodriguez]] ({{UCI team code|OLO|2006}}), [[Bobby Julich]] and [[Dave Zabriskie]] ({{UCI team code|SAX|2006}}), [[Levi Leipheimer]] ({{UCI team code|GST|2006}}), and [[Gilberto Simoni]] ({{UCI team code|GEO|2006}}).

==Stages of the 2006 Tour of California==

===San Francisco individual time trial===
Bay Area resident [[Levi Leipheimer]] took the early lead in the Tour and secured the leader's golden jersey by winning the prologue [[time trial]]. His time of 4:53.43 put him ahead of second-place finisher [[Bobby Julich]], who finished five seconds behind the leader.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20060524111714/http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/9515.0.html</ref> Americans swept the first five spots with [[George Hincapie]] finishing third, followed by [[Floyd Landis]] and [[David Zabriskie]]. The {{convert|1.9|mi|km|adj=on}} prologue began at San Francisco's Ferry Building and climbed up Telegraph Hill to finish at the base of [[Coit Tower]].

===Sausalito to Santa Rosa===
[[Juan José Haedo]] won the stage after a mass sprint, ahead of veterans [[Olaf Pollack]] and [[Stuart O'Grady]] from the [[UCI ProTour]] teams {{UCI team code|THR|2006}} and {{UCI team code|SAX|2006}}. This was the first win for team [[Toyota-United Pro]].

{{UCI team code|GST|2006}} controlled the race, letting [[Jean Marc Marino]] ({{UCI team code|C.A|2006}}) and [[Jackson Stewart (cyclist)|Jackson Stewart]] ([[Kodak]]gallery.Com-[[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]]) escape, but keeping the time gap small enough to catch them before the finish.

Arriving in his [[Santa Rosa, California|hometown]] in the leader's golden jersey, [[Levi Leipheimer]] (Gerolsteiner) was greeted by tens of thousands of his fans. By finishing near the front of the main pack, he retained the jersey for the next day.

===Martinez to San José===
Mike Creed (TIAA-CREF) sprinted away from the field just {{convert|9|mi|km|spell=in}} after the start. He was followed by Mads Kaggestad (Crédit Agricole) and Ben Jaques-Maynes (Kodak Gallery.com/Sierra Nevada). The three remained in front for the next {{convert|40|mi|km}} or so, until they were caught by the peloton.  [[Bernhard Kohl]] (T-Mobile) won the King of the Mountain for the day.

[[George Hincapie]] (Discovery Channel) won the stage and with the ten second time bonus took the lead from [[Levi Leipheimer]] (Gerolsteiner). This put Leipheimer in second place, four seconds behind Hincapie.

===San José individual time trial===
[[Floyd Landis]] won the time trial and took over the lead in the overall with a time of 35:58 for the 17-mile course, 26 seconds faster than second-place finisher [[David Zabriskie]], whose time for the third stage was 36:24. Landis' outstanding performance allowed him to gain 55 seconds on [[George Hincapie]] and 1:16 over [[Levi Leipheimer]], establishing overall gaps of 45 seconds and 1:10 respectively, which were never to change throughout the remainder of the tour.

===Monterey to San Luis Obispo===
The longest stage of the tour closed with a mass sprint in San Luis Obispo, with Juan José Haedo taking his second stage of the race. Floyd Landis maintained the overall lead.

===San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara===
Another sprint to the finish line, and George Hincapie won his second ToC stage; however, the overall standings remained the same, with Floyd Landis holding on to the gold Leader's jersey. Hincapie did take the Sprinter's jersey while Levi Leipheimer, true to his strength, took the King of the Mountain jersey by collecting the first place points on the biggest climb of the stage, the category 1 climb of San Marcos Pass, {{convert|15|mi|km}} from the finish. He was caught, however, on the downhill.

===Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks===
This short stage was won following yet another sprint to the finish; this time, by Olaf Pollack of Team T-Mobile. Pollack finished in 3:26:39 to take his first stage win in a major race in about 18 months. Floyd Landis maintains a 29-second overall lead heading into the final stage, a 10-lap, 76.5-mile circuit race in Redondo Beach.

===Redondo Beach circuit race===
[[Olaf Pollack]] again won the stage and the green sprinter's jersey.  [[Floyd Landis]]' lead proved insurmountable, giving him the golden jersey signifying the overall win in the inaugural Amgen Tour of California by 29 seconds. The second- through seventh-place finishers (Zabriskie, Julich, Hincapie, O'Neill, Leipheimer and Evans) all were less than 1:30 off the lead. Leipheimer won the King of the Mountain (orange) jersey. {{UCI team code|SAX|2006}} (sponsored by the [[Denmark|Danish]] subsidiary of the California-based Computer Sciences Corporation) took Best Team honors.

===Final standings top ten riders===

{| style="border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #c0c0c0;" border="1" cellpadding="3"
! Overall !! Name !! Nationality !! Team !! Time
|---
|align="right"| 1 || [[Floyd Landis]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|PHO|2006}} || 22 hr 46'46"
|---
|align="right"| 2 || [[David Zabriskie]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|SAX|2006}} || 0.29 
|---
|align="right"| 3 || [[Bobby Julich]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|SAX|2006}} || 0.34
|---
|align="right"| 4 || [[George Hincapie]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|DSC|2006}} || 0.45
|---
|align="right"| 5 || [[Nathan O'Neill]] || {{AUS}} || [[Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis|Health Net p/b Maxxis]] || 1.08
|---
|align="right"| 6 || [[Levi Leipheimer]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|GST|2006}} || 1.10
|---
|align="right"| 7 || [[Cadel Evans]] || {{AUS}} || {{UCI team code|OLO|2006}} || 1.29
|---
|align="right"| 8 || <del>[[Tom Danielson]]</del> || <del>{{USA}}</del> || <del>{{UCI team code|DSC|2006}}</del> || <del>1.49</del>
|---
|align="right"| 9 || [[Christian Vande Velde]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}} || 1.55
|---
|align="right"| 10 || [[Jason McCartney (cyclist)|Jason McCartney]] || {{USA}} || {{UCI team code|DSC|2006}} || 1.58
|}

==Jersey progress==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; font-size:smaller;"
|- style="background-color: #efefef;"
! width="14%" | Stage<br>(Winner)
! style="background:#ffc80b;" width="14%"|General Classification<br>
! style="background:#a4d049;" width="14%"|Sprint Classification<br>
! style="background:#d56221;" width="14%"|Mountains Classification<br>
! style="background:LightBlue;" width="14%"|Youth Classification<br>
! style="background:;" width="14%"|Team Classification
! style="background:#cc0000;" width="14%"| <span style="color:white;">Most Aggressive</span>
|-
| {{0}}Prologue<br>([[Levi Leipheimer]])
| style="background:#ffc80b" rowspan="2"| [[Levi Leipheimer]]
| style="background:" rowspan="1"| ''no award''
| style="background:#d56221;" rowspan="5"| [[Bernhard Kohl]]
| style="background:LightBlue;" rowspan="2"| [[Zachary Grabowski]]
| style="background:'' rowspan="8"| {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}}
| style="background:" rowspan="1"| ''no award''
|-
| {{0}}Stage 1<br>([[Juan José Haedo]])
| style="background:#a4d049;" rowspan="1"| [[Juan José Haedo]]
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Jackson Stewart (cyclist)|Jackson Stewart]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}Stage 2<br>([[George Hincapie]])
| style="background:#ffc80b" rowspan="1"| [[George Hincapie]]
| style="background:#a4d049;" rowspan="2"| [[George Hincapie]]
| style="background:LightBlue;" rowspan="6"| [[Tom Peterson (cyclist)|Tom Peterson]]
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Michael Creed (cyclist)|Michael Creed]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}Stage 3<br>([[Floyd Landis]])
| style="background:#ffc80b" rowspan="5"| [[Floyd Landis]]
| style="background:" rowspan="1"| ''no award''
|-
| {{0}}Stage 4<br>([[Juan José Haedo]])
| style="background:#a4d049;" rowspan="1"| [[Juan José Haedo]]
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Lars Bak]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}Stage 5<br>([[George Hincapie]])
| style="background:#a4d049;" rowspan="2"| [[George Hincapie]]
| style="background:#d56221;;" rowspan="3"| [[Levi Leipheimer]]
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Nick Reistad]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}Stage 6<br>([[Olaf Pollack]])
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Sebastian Lang]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}Stage 7<br>([[Olaf Pollack]])
| style="background:#a4d049;" rowspan="1"| [[Olaf Pollack]]
| style="background:#cc0000;" rowspan="1"| <span style="color:white;">[[Glen Chadwick]]</span>
|-
| {{0}}'''Final'''<br>
| style="background:#ffc80b" rowspan="1"| [[Floyd Landis]]
| style="background:#a4d049" rowspan="1"| [[Olaf Pollack]]
| style="background:#d56221" rowspan="1"| [[Levi Leipheimer]]
| style="background:LightBlue;" rowspan="1"| [[Tom Peterson (cyclist)|Tom Peterson]]
| style="background:" rowspan="1"| {{UCI team code|CSC|2006}}
|}

==Teams==
*{{UCI team code|DSC|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|SAX|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|THR|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|PHO|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|GST|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|GEO|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|OLO|2006}}
*{{UCI team code|C.A|2006}}
*[[Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis]]
*[http://www.navpro.com/ Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team]
*[http://www.jellybellycycling.com/ Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060704125035/http://www.tiaa-cref.org/cycling/ Team TIAA-CREF]
*[http://www.teamcolavita.com/  Colavita Olive Oil / Sutter Home Winery Cycling Team]
*[http://www.kgsncycling.com/ KodakGallery.com / Sierra Nevada Pro Cycling Team]
*[http://www.fmc.org.mx/ KB Home Mexico National Team] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630081824/http://www.fmc.org.mx/ |date=2006-06-30 }}
*[http://www.toyota-united.com/ Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/Archives/2006-archive.html}} - 2006 Tour Archive
* [http://www.cyclingfans.com/arc02-18-06-02-26-06.html Live Coverage and Photos] ''Cyclingfans.com''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060822225755/http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/9511.0.html Amgen Tour of California: No more dreamin'] ''VeloNews.com''

{{Tour of California}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Tour Of California}}
[[Category:Tour of California|2006]]
[[Category:2006 in road cycling|Tour of California 2006]]
[[Category:2006 in American sports|Tour of California 2006]]
[[Category:2006 in sports in California|Tour of California]]