26 countries were represented. France has the most riders, with 36 from the total of 176.
Bouygues Télécom is only team with all nine riders from the same country.
Team CSC is only team without rider from the country the team is from (Denmark)
31 riders who have already completed Giro: Ekimov, Padrnos, Rubiera, Savoldelli, Julich, Lombardi, Sastre, Voigt, Kessler, Calzati, Peña, Cunego, Bruseghin, Tiralongo, Valjavec, Vila Errandonea, Garate, Botcharov, Halgand, Lopez, Parra, Simoni, Lobato, Casar, da Cruz, Larsson, Di Luca, Calcagni, Lefevre, Knees, Sacchi
11 riders who took part in Giro but abandoned: Honchar, Rogers, Scholz, Rasmussen, Brandt, McEwen, Merckx, Rujano, Moreni, Verbrugghe, Gilbert
Following a non-start from Jan Ullrich, it is the first time since 1999 that the race has not included a former Tour de France winner.
Five riders have won Grand Tour: Garzelli (Giro 2000), Simoni (Giro 2001 and 2003), Savoldelli (Giro 2002 and 2005), Cunego (Giro 2004) and Menchov (Vuelta 2005)
Three riders have won points competition in Tour de France: Zabel (1996 to 2001), McEwen (2002 and 2004) and Hushovd (2005)
Two riders have won mountains classification in Tour de France: Rinero (1998) and Rasmussen (2005)
Four riders have won under-25 classification in Tour de France: Salmon (1999), Menchov (2003), Karpets (2004) and Popovych (2005)
Eleven riders had led the general classification: Vasseur, Zabel, O'Grady, Millar, Moreau, Voigt, Peña, Hushovd, McEwen, Voeckler and Zabriskie.
Riders who lead the general classification for the first time during the 2006 Tour: Hincapie, Boonen, Honchar, Dessel, Landis and Pereiro.
At the start, riders who had won a stage in Tour de France: Ekimov, Zabel, Boogerd, Vasseur, Brochard, Mengin, Rous, O'Grady, Bäckstedt, Guerini, Commesso, McEwen, Millar, Dekker, Moreau, Verbrugghe, Voigt, Freire, Halgand, Hushovd, Mayo, Flecha, Sastre, Simoni, Boonen, Pozzato, Moncoutié, Mercado, Zabriskie, Weening, Rasmussen, Valverde, Totschnig, Hincapie, Pereiro and Savoldelli.
New stage winners during the Tour: Casper, Kessler, Honchar, Calzati, Menchov, Popovych, Fedrigo, Schleck, and Landis. (Note: Popovych was part of the Discovery Channel team that won the time trial stage in the 2005 Tour de France. However it's his first individual stage victory. There are other riders as well who have been part of winning team in TTT but haven't won an individual stage)
