In the 2006 Tour de France, he was a domestique on for team captains Carlos Sastre and Fränk Schleck. Vande Velde was the best of the climbers in the team apart from Sastre and Schleck, whom he supported in the high mountain stages. On Stage 16, he pulled for most of the early slopes of the Col de la Croix de Fer, after which, team-mates Sastre and Schleck attacked to put then race leader Floyd Landis () under pressure. On Stage 17, to Morzine, he again pulled for most of the day along with team-mates Jens Voigt, Matthias Kessler, and Serhiy Honchar from the .