The women's road race of the 2006 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on 23 September in Salzburg, Austria. The race was 132.6 km long. Anne Samplonius (Canada) and Natalia Boyarskaya (Russia) made an early break, attacking on the climb on the second lap, they held a small gap until two laps to go. Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) attacked up the steep Gschaiderberg climb on the penultimate lap, this caused huge splits in the main field. Several others riders eventually joined Cooke to form a breakaway group which included the Swiss riders Nicole Brändli, Priska Doppmann and Annette Beutler; German riders Judith Arndt, Theresa Senff and Trixi Worrack; Andrea Graus and Christiane Soeder of Austria, Svetlana Bubnenkova (Russia), Oenone Wood (Australia) and Amber Neben (United S