04.06.2006 5: Mersch - Luxembourg (149 km)
Kim Kirchen behind Garzelli, Vandevelde overall winner
results:
| 
| 
|
Stefano Garzelli
Christian Vandevelde
|
| |
25th at 18"
|
24th at 18'22"
|
| |
7th at 0"
|
19th at 17'49"
|
| |
2nd at 0"
|
16th at 17'23"
|
| | | | |
| | | |
The decision for the overall victory wasn't too much subject to suspense any more because Christian Vandevelde had 3" advance on Thomasz Brozyna in the morning and seemed strong enough to keep the yellow leader's jersey. He was supported by maybe the strongest team of the Tour around Frank and Andy Schleck, but also Allan Johansen who was lying in third position overall. On the other hand, the battle for the stage victory
promised lots of suspense than on the hilly final course, several riders had ambitions, among them Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen. The latter clearly had
announced that he wanted to win the stage after the defeat of yesterday and that the course was nearly perfect for him. And he didn't hesitate to take his responsabilities during the stage, controlling the peloton together with his only team-mate left in the race, Lorenzo Bernucci.
On the final laps, Kim took himself strong turns at the front of the peloton, in order to reel in a break with riders like Weening, Carlström, Engoulvent, Sijmens or Frederik Johansson that was still at the front. But in the very last kilometers, another team took control of the field because their leader also had high ambitions: Liquigas with Stefano Garzelli who clearly likes uphill finishes like this. A month ago, the Italian rider had beaten all the sprinters at the slightly uphill finish of the Henninger Turm race. And Garzelli showed out to be also the strongest today, by beating Kim Kirchen on the line with half a wheel of advance. Due to this second place, the Luxemburgish rider was able to ensure the victory in the points competition, taking over the lead from Allan Johansen. Andy and Frank Schleck haven't sprinted for the victory at the finish, they had another mission: staying with Christian Vandevelde to ensure he didn't loose any second on Thomasz Brozyna on the final climb of the montée de Clausen. Mission accomplished because the American rider has crossed the finish line in the same time than the stage winner and by doing so, he was able to write his name in the palmares of the Tour de Luxembourg behind the year 2006.
pictures here
03.06.2006 4: Wiltz - Diekirch (175 km)
Van de Velde wins, Kirchen looses
results:
|
|
|
Jonasz Ljungblad
Christian Vandevelde
|
| |
23rd at 17'14"
|
31st at 18'04"
|
| |
27th at 17'14"
|
21st at 17'49"
|
| |
19th at 17'14"
|
18th at 17'29"
|
| | | | | | | | |
A bad day during the queen stage of the Tour for the Luxemburgish riders. At the beginning, everything seemed all right and the high speed set by Frank Schleck in the climbs of Bourscheid and Flebour had already split up the peloton into several parts, with the three at ACC Contern licensed riders in the first group. But then, at a normally non-strategic point of the race, the large road to Hosingen, a group of 16 riders took the lead in several waves. When this group went away, Kirchen and the Schleck brothers were at the back of the peloton, taking some food and recovering a little bit for the next climbs and so, they didn't catch the good train that went away there. Team CSC had several riders up front with Christian Muller, Allan Johansen and Christian Vandevelde who was best place overall in the little group. Lorenzo Bernucci, the only team-mate of Kim Kirchen that was still with him, also was in the move. Other big teams were represented: Rabobank with Flecha and Sentjens, Liquigas with Capecchi, Crédit Agricole with Bodrogi and Lemoine as well as team Unibet of the leader Serpellini with Coenen and Ljungblad. The other riders in the break were Bert Dewaele, Tomasz Brosyna, Floris Goesinnen, Jan Barta and Dariusz Rudnicki. Kim Kirchen didn't have any team-mate with him any more and nobody else showed interest in organizing a chase: the gap grew really fast: 3 minutes, then 5 and finally 17 minutes at the finish line. Kim Kirchen has lost all chances for an overall victory. It was the same for Andy and Frank Schleck but they can take something rather positive out of the day: Their team-mates Christian Vandevelde and Allan Johansen are now placed at the positions one and three overall. In addition, Johansen has glanced the points jersey from Kim Kirchen due to a second place in the sprint for the stage victory behind Swedish National Champion Jonasz Ljungblad. In the overall classification, the Luxemburgish T-Mobile rider falls back to 18th position, whereas the Schleck brothers now are listed in 21st and 31st positions.
pictures here
02.06.2006 3: Schifflange - Differdange (183 km)
Kim Kirchen too isolated: Serpellini takes control
results:
|
|
|
Paul Martens
Marco Serpellini
|
| |
38th at 34"
|
24th at 52"
|
| |
13th at 44"
|
10th at 37"
|
| |
15th at 44"
|
5th at 17"
|
| | | | | | | | |
The stage was very animated with attacks from the beginning and the T-Mobile team wasn't able to resist to the pressure. A group of 7 riders broke clear shortly before half race and they took more than 2 minutes of advance. There was a local rider from CCI Differdange with Hakan Nilsson, last year's overall winner Laszlo Bodrogi, Thomas Brozyna, Paul Martens, Steffen Radochla, Marco Serpellini and Christian VandeVelde. The latter is from team CSC, so Frank and Andy Schleck as well as their team-mates didn't have to do any work in the chase, that lasted mainly on the fragile shoulders of the team of Kim Kirchen, helped from time to time by Rabobank of Juan Antonio Flecha. T-Mobile had taken the start of the Tour de Luxembourg with 6 riders only, and two of them had already retired in the first stages, so there were only Ivanov, Bernucci and sprinter Pollack left to help Kirchen out of the situation. Those three riders did their job well and during the last lap, the yellow jersey himslef took most of the turns in the peloton, but they weren't able to chase down the break. Among the riders in the front, despite several attacks of Christian Vandevelde in the last lap, it was Marco Serpellini who profited best from the situation by placing in second position behind Paul Martens at the finish line and taking over the yellow leader jersey. Kim Kirchen, Frank and Andy Schleck have finished 15th, 13th and 38th inside of the pleloton, 30 seconds late of the winner. In the overall classification, Kirchen is still best placed Luxemburgish rider with now 17 seconds gap to the leader whereas the Schleck brothers are 37 and 54 seconds behind Serpellini. Kim Kirchen is still in possession of the white and blue jersey of the leader in the points classification.
pictures here
01.06.2006 2: Luxembourg - Mondorf (169 km)
Kim Kirchen retains overall lead
Results:
|
|
|
Allan Johansen
Kim Kirchen
|
| |
19th at 8"
|
24th at 35"
|
| |
7th at 0"
|
5th at 20"
|
| |
2nd at 0"
|
Leader
|
| | | | | | | | |
The Tour of Luxembourg 2006 shows a very tough profile and this stage was the perfect illustration: three climbs on the big lap through the East of the country, and then two more short, but steep hills on the finishing circuit, to be ridden twice. This doesn't seem to bother Andy Schleck, who clearly rode for the King of the Mountains jersey today by crossing the summit of each counting climb among the three Best. This evening, Andy is second in the Mountains trophy behind Scheuneman. Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck were also up at the front today and they didn't fail to be so when the peloton exploded into several parts on the tough final circuit. Before that, the stage was animated
by two riders, Niels Scheuneman from Rabobank and Andy Capelle of the Landbouwkrediet team, who broke away early and had up to four and a
half minutes of advantage. But when T-Mobile started the chase at the front of the pack, soon imitated by some more teams, the chances of the two leading riders were soon reduced to zero. On the first climb of the "Scheierbierg", the peloton was torn into pieces and on the "Aspelter" a few kilometers later, a group of 7 riders took the lead: Leader Kirchen, Frank Schleck with his team-mate Johansen, the Liquigas-riders Albasini and Capecchi, Juan Antonio Flecha as well as the young French rider Mathieu Sprick from the Bouyges Telekom team. No doubt, the best riders were up there and their advantage soon reached 40 seconds. But then, Unibet and Skil started chasing hard in the second group and the riders in front didn't cooperate very well: there were lots of attacks from the Liquigas-duo, but also from Flecha, Schleck and Kirchen. As a result, the gap decreased to only 10 seconds with one kilometer to go, but it would be sufficient. Frank Schleck tried another attack 800 m from the finish line, but he was reeled in and his team-mate Allan Johansen beat Kim Kirchen on the line for the stage victory. With this second place, Kirchen increases his overall lead to 14" on the second rider who is now his former team-mate Juan Antonio Flecha. Frank Schleck finishes the stage in 7th position and is now 20 seconds late overall whereas Andy Schleck crossed the line in 19th position in the second group and is now 35" behind the leader in the overall classification.
pictures here
31.05.2006 1: Luxembourg - Luxembourg (2,6 km ITT)
Kim Kirchen wins prologue
Results:
|
|
|
Kim Kirchen
|
| |
41st at 20"
|
41st at 20"
|
| |
13th at 13"
|
13th at 13"
|
| |
Winner
|
Leader
|
| | | | | | | | |
Most of the people waited for a good result of Frank Schleck on today's prologue of the Tour de Luxembourg, but it was Kim Kirchen who did a big performance by taking the win. On a perfect course for him, where explosive power was the most important factor, the rider from T-Mobile has created a huge gap: 5 seconds advance on defending champion and second of the prologue Laszlo Bodrogi in only 2,6 km of racing. This difference was a surprise for
everyone, including Kirchen himself, but he admitted having had really good sensations in his training sessions in the last two weeks. In addition to that, the bad weather and his good knowledge of the course favoured him. The only one who seemed able to beat Kim Kirchen today was Australian rider Baden Cooke, who took a tremendous 15th position at the finish despite a crash in the penultimate turn. The Schleck brothers did also well: Frank the older had some trouble to find a good rythm in such a short effort after more than a month of cut since Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but finished in a good 13th position, 13 seconds behind Kim Kirchen. Andy didn't have much luck, because he had to ride an hour earlier than the most of the favourites, just after a rain shower had wetted the course. On the slippery road with narrow turns and paved sections, Andy did a good job, finishing off in 41st position, 20 seconds down.
pictures here
21.05.2006 7: Lloret de Mar - Barcelona (122 km)
Canada wins overall, Andy Schleck attacked
Results:
|
|
|
Daniele Bennati
David Canada
|
| |
118th at 29"
|
74th at 25'42"
|
| |
84th at 0"
|
86th at 31'22"
|
| | | | | | |
As usual, the stage was very hilly and also very animated from the beginning. A group of 12 riders broke away on the very first climb, among them the usual suspects Botero, Moreau, Canada, Leipheimer or Rodriguez, but also Andy Schleck. The peloton reacted quickly and the advantage of the break never exceeded 15 seconds, before they were reeled in after several kilometers. A little bit later, another group went away: this time riders like Dekker, Sanchez, Jimenez or cyclo-cross champ Francis Mourey tried their luck. But Saunier-Duval didn't want to take any risk and they have chased down this break too. After that, Lampre took control of the race and they led the pack to a massive sprint, which was won by their home sprinter Daniele Bennati in front of Kemps, Zabel, O'Grady and Pozzato. Kim Kirchen has finished the stage in the peloton, whereas Andy Schleck, who has used some strength at the beginning of the stage, lost half a minute in the final kilometers. For the two riders, the results haven't been brillant in this Volta a Catalunya, but this tough stage race certainly was for them another step to rebuild form after some early season problems.
20.05.2006 6: Manlleu - Lloret de Mar (166 km)
Canada takes the command
Results:
|
|
|
Matej Mugerli
David Canada
|
| |
65th at 5'01"
|
78th at 25'13"
|
| |
95th at 5'01"
|
92nd at 31'22"
|
| | | | | | |
A new, very animated stage where overall leader Carlos Castano has been attacked from all parts. Immediately after the start, on the first climb, a big group managed to create a gap to the rest of the riders with lots of overall favourites in it: Canada, Botero, Moreau, Hesjedal, Mancebo, Karpets, Menchov, Gerdemann and more. But Carlos Castano wasn't present in this group and his Kaiku team had to work all day to try to reduce the gap. At the front, Saunier-Duval for Canada, Phonak for Botero and Ag2R for Moreau smelled the possibility for a win and united their forces to increase the gap to over 5 minutes. At the finish, where Slovenian rider Mugerli surprised Hushovd and the other sprinters by attacking with 500 m to go, the second group was 5'01" late and Castano had to hand over his beautifull white jersey to David Canada, who failed already yesterday to have it. Like Castano, Kim Kirchen and Andy Schleck had failed to integrate the good group at the beginning of the stage and they had to settle down in the peloton and watch the vain chase of the Kaiku riders.
19.05.2006 5: Llivia - Manlleu (162 km)
Garcia wins very animated stage
Results:
|
|
|
Adolfo Garcia
Carlos Castano
|
| |
103rd at 6'07"
|
82nd at 21'29"
|
| |
47th at 55"
|
103rd at 27'38"
|
| | | | | | |
After the brillant demonstration of Carlos Castano in the final climb up to Andorra yesterday, some favourites wanted to strike back today, in order to stay with some chances for the overall victory. They have attacked today and rewarded us with a very fast, tough and animated stage from the beginning. A group of 16 riders broke clear after 30 kilometers, among them some overall contenders: Moreau, Rodriguez or Leipheimer. Luckily for Castano, the Phonak riders were not represented in this group and they helped Kaiku to chase down the break. But immediately after that, another group broke clear, containing riders like Astarloza, Jimenez or Garcia, but also David Canada, who virtually captured the white leader jersey during the stage. Botero and Mancebo also put the pressure on Castano by attacking behind the break in the last climb, but the Spaniard didn't fail. First he neutalized the attack from Botero and Mancebo, then his Kaiku team brought down the gap to the break to under a minute, thus helping him to get back the leader jersey temporarily lost to Canada. The stage was won in a sprint by Adolfo Garcia Quesada, who impressed by being in every break that day and surely deserved the victory. Kim Kirchen also made a good impression. He has been with the best all day and finished the stage in the first chasing groupe around Castano and the other GC contenders. Andy Schleck has suffered a little bit more and he has lost contact to the best on the last climb. He has finished the stage 6 minutes down in a small group of 7 riders, several seconds before the main pack.
18.05.2006 4: Perafort - Vallnord/Andorra (225 km)
Carlos Castano creates the surprise
Results:
|
|
Carlos Castano
|
| |
89th at 16'18"
|
86th at 16'17"
|
| |
49th at 8'18"
|
130th at 27'38"
|
| | | | | |
The Queen stage of this year's Volta a Catalunya, not only because of its length (225 km), but also because it is the only one with a mountain top finish, in Andorra precisely, after an uphill of 17 km at 6,7 average slope. Before that, the riders already had to master three other climbs of first and second category. But this stage profile didn't prevent some riders from attacking and like the other days, a small group broke clear and created a huge gap, this time Christophe Moreau (Ag2R), Inigo Landaluce (Euskatel), Remy de Gregoro (Française des Jeux) and Ricardo Serrano. The teams from Phonak and Gerolsteiner have worked to reduce the gap that was still of 6 minutes at the foot of the last climb. At this point, Christophe Moreau decided to continue alone , but after 200 km of break, he couldn't prevent the fantastic return from Carlos Castanois. Castano has attacked out of the peloton at the beginning of the climb and was the only one able to pass Moreau. As a surprise for everyone, the rider from the modest Kaiku team took the stage victory, the white leader's jersey as well as a serous option on the final overall victory. More than 2 minutes behind the Spaniard, the favourites battled out the next places where Phonak with Botero and Hesjedal took the better of Karpets, Menchov, Gerdemann or Mancebo. Kim Kirchen has done a good race, working hard with Guerini to deliver Gerdemann perfectly at the foot of the last climb. Despite his efforts from yesterday and despite the team work, he has finished at a respectable 49th place without suffering too much. Andy Schleck had to discover that one cannot recover from a one month's break in a few days, especially in the mountains, and he has lost some more time. He has done the last climb at his own rythm and finished alone in 89th position, 16 minutes behind the winner.
17.05.2006 3: Salou - Sant Charles de la Rapita (177 km)
Kim Kirchen attacks without luck
Results:
|
|
Thor Hushovd
|
| |
134th at 0"
|
38th at 36"
|
| |
184th at 5'53"
|
191st at 19'57"
|
| | | | | |
Before heading north to Andorra for the big mountain stage of tomorrow, the riders made a trip towards south today on a hilly course that was perfectly suitable for attacks. And one of the first riders to attack was Kim Kirchen, whose up and down evolution this season continues. After having finished among the very last of the stage yesterday, due to recurrent back problems, the Luxemburgish rider has integrated a break after km 5 already, together with Stéphane Augé (Cofidis), Manuel Quniziato (Liquigas), Jorge Garcia (Relax) and Francisco Mancebo (Ag2r). Of course, the peloton has opened the chase on a group that contained one of the major favorites for the overall victory in it, and only after Mancebo had dropped back into the pack on km 41, the break was able to increase its advantage to a maximum of 16 minutes. On the col de Fatxes, most important climb of the day, Jorge Garcia wasn't able to keep up any more, thus reducing the number of riders in the break to three. The gap had decreased to 9 minutes and a half at this moment because like yesterday, Caisse d'Epargne - Illes Balears reacted in the peloton. The leading trio continued its way through the intermediate sprint of Benifallet where Kim Kirchen passed in first position and the climb of Som, where the Luxemburgish rider was in third position. With 40 merely flat km to go, the advantage of the break had decreased to 6 minutes, and the return of the peloton was quite porbable. Kirchen decided at that moment to let it be and to wait for the main pack that was led at high speed by the sprinter teams and swallowed up the last riders with around 15 km to go. In a final that was marked by crosswinds, Kirchen finished the stage together with his former break companions in a second group, more than 5 minutes behind Thor Hushovd, who won the bunch sprint and took the leader's jersey due to the bonus seconds. Despite the very high speed, despite the crosswinds and also several crahes in the peloton, Andy Schleck managed to cross the finish line in the middle of the pack.
16.05.2006 2: Cambrills - Cambrills (157 km)
Luis Perez Romero resists
Results:
|
|
|
Luis Perez
Fabian Cancellara
|
| |
144th at 12"
|
42nd at 35"
|
| |
192nd at 13'34"
|
189th at 14'06"
|
| | | | | | |
From Cambrills at the coast, the riders have accomplished a trip into the Catalanian country-side, and then returned to Cambrills after 157 km and 4 climbs of the less difficult categories. From the beginning, the riders had to climb the Alt de Teixeta and the Alt de Porrera, and whereas the majority of the riders took it easy on these two climbs, 4 riders broke away and rapidly reached up to 11 minutes of advance: José Alberto Benitez (Saunier Duval), Giovanni Visconti (Team Milram), Claudio Casas (Communitat Valenciana) and Luis Peres (Andalucia). On the Coll de Fatxes, with 570 m the highest point of today's stage, Caisse d'Epargne - Illes Balears, the team of the second overall Vladimir Karpets and of sprinter Isaac Galvez, initiated the chase and the gap began to decrease. It was still of 6 minutes with 40 km to go, but then, Lampre also participated in the turns at the front of the pack for their sprinter Bennati. The advantage of the leading four got smaller and smaller and Luis Perez decided that it was time to do something. He attacked in the last kilometers and resisted alone to the flying peloton, keeping just 12" of advance on Galvez, Hushovd, Zabel, Edo and the other sprinters. Unlike Benoît Joachim at the Giro, who has passed his day at the front in Italy, Andy Schleck stayed rather calm in the middle of the pack. Team CSC had decided not to defend by all means the leader jersey of Cancellara and so, the Luxemburgish rider didn't have to take turns in front of the peloton. Kim Kirchen, on the other hand, had a very bad day in hot weather conditions and he finished way off at 13'34" in a small group with among others cyclo-cross champ Enrico Franzoi and the young Finnish rider Yukka Vastarranta.
15.05.2006 1: Salou - Salu (12,6 km ITT)
Cancellara wins time-trial without surprise
Results:
|
|
Fabian Cancellara
|
| |
43rd at 35"
|
43rd at 35"
|
| |
61st at 44"
|
61st at 44"
|
| | | | | |
In the last years, the "Volta" has always known an individual time-trial in the streets of the tourist-city Salou as opening act, and this year wasn't an exception, although the course was with 12,6 km shorter and even flatter than in the past. An opportunity for rouleurs of course, and in fact, the specialists have dominated the race: Fabian Cancellara, Swiss time-trial champion and team-mate of Andy Schleck at CSC, has flown around the course at 52 km/h of average speed. With a time of 14'55", the winner of Paris-Roubaix was 3 seconds faster than Vladimir Karpets in second position, Janez Brajkovic in third place and Robert Hunter in fourth place. The former time-trial world champion Santiago Botero from Columbia has completed the top-five, 5 seconds behind the winner. Kim Kirchen and Andy Schleck have both finished among the first third of the riders, on a course that didn't suit them at all. The Luxemburgish time-trial champ, in 43rd position, has ridden at an average speed of 48,7 km/h and finished in 15'30", 35 seconds behind Cancellara. The rider from T-Mobile, on his side, has been 0,2 km/h in average slower than Schleck and has needed 9 seconds more than him to complete the 12,6 km in 61st position.
01.05.2006 Frankfurt - Frankfurt (190 km)
Garzelli surprises the sprinters
Resultate:
|
|
Stefano Garzelli
|
|
| |
|
DNF
|
|
| |
|
34th at 0"
|
| | | |
It is clear that for the T-Mobile team, as well as for Gerolsteiner, the biggest traditionnal German One-day-race is a special race and the men in Magenta have proven it by animating the race from the beginning, with among others Kim Kirchen who did a very good race. Patrick Sinkewitz and Steffen Wesemann were the first riders of T-Mobile to threaten seriously by integrating a very attractive break containing also Jens Voigt or Fabian Wegmann. After several climbs and flat tyres, the lead group was reduced to two riders only: Voigt and Sinkewitz who believed in their chances although there were still more than 100 km to go and set a very impressive speed in the lead. Behind them, several counter attacks took place, with Kim Kirchen being very attentive. He managed to get into a group with Pettacchi and Rebellin that had formed after an attack of the Gerolsteiner captain and looked very promising. But the
teams of Lamonta and Unibet led a bunch of around 50 riders back to the Kirchen-Rebellin group, and later also to the leading duo Voigt-Sinkewitz. Several attacks of Serguey Ivanov in the last lap were not enough to prevent a massive sprint where the favourites were named Zabel, Petacchi, Hondo or Ciolek. But Stefano Garzelli suprised the sprinters by attacking out of the wheel of Petacchi on the last uphill straight and nobody was able to come around him until the finish line. Kim Kirchen has ridden very carefully on the narrow and dangerous local circuit, being most of the time at the end of the lead group. In the last lap, he tried to move up several positions, but the sprinters were already gone and so Kim finished in 34th position in a race that should have boosted his morale again. Andy Schleck, on the other hand, has had a tough day in his first race after his break due to a broken collarbone. A difficult course, miserable weather conditions and high speed in the peloton complicated his comeback and Andy had to quit the race. But despite the result, the CSC-rider was happy to resume competition and he was also satisfied with his performance: he has managed to stay with the peloton for over 150 km after more than a month break.
Note: "This site contains links to other Internet pages, on which content and presentation we don't have any influence. These refences are indicated merely for your information and and we can't be made reliable for any of the content of any of the Internet pages our links may take you to."
|
David Canada
David Canada
Photo finish
Carlos Castano
Fabian Cancellara
