Cycling - Giro d'Italia 2006 Part 1

The 2006 Giro d'Italia was the 89th edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Giro began in the Belgian city of Seraing with a 6.2 km (3.9 mi) individual time trial. The race came to a close with a 140 km (87.0 mi) mass-start road stage that stretched from Museo del Ghisallo to Milan. Twenty two teams entered the race that was won by the Italian Ivan Basso of the Team CSC team. Second and third were the Spain José Enrique Gutiérrez and Italian Gilberto Simoni.

Basso, riding for Team CSC, won the Giro in dominant fashion. Basso won three individual stages, as well as the team time trial, along with his fellow Team CSC riders, and won the overall classification by more than 9 minutes over the next best rider, the largest margin of victory in a Grand Tour in the last three years.

In the other classifications that the race awarded, Paolo Bettini of the Quick-Step–Innergetic team won the points classification, Quick Step-Innergetic rider Juan Manuel Gárate won the mountains classification, and Paolo Savoldelli of the Discovery Channel won the combination classification. Phonak finished as the winners of the Trofeo Fast Team classification, ranking each of the twenty-two teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time. The other team classification, the Trofeo Super Team classification, where the teams' riders are awarded points for placing within the top twenty in each stage and the points are then totaled for each team was also won by Phonak.