In 2006, Sánchez added two stage wins in the Tour of the Basque Country and a second place on the steep finishing climb of the Belgian spring classic La Flèche Wallonne.

At the UCI Road World Championships in the Austrian city of Salzburg Sánchez played a major part by creating the decisive break in the final kilometre for his leader Alejandro Valverde.

With 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) to go he attacked to solo into Zürich with half a minute to spare over Stuart O'Grady and Davide Rebellin.

Sánchez and his Spanish teammates, along with strong help from the Italians and Russians, drove the peloton at a tough pace to catch the group of 20 or so remaining members of the breakaway; and, with 20 kilometres (12 miles) to go, Sánchez and two others escaped and were only caught when Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, Russian Alexandr Kolobnev and Australian Michael Rogers latched onto the group with only a few kilometres left.

[8] In 2009, Sánchez won the Gran Premio de Llodio, and he came third overall in the Tour of the Basque Country, winning the points classification.

The pair collaborated well together during the last kilometres to keep the chasers at bay during the descent and Sánchez lost the sprint by half a bike length.

Sánchez carried his good form into the Tour de France where he finished 4th overall,[10] after losing out on a podium place to Denis Menchov in the final time trial.

Sánchez was among the favourites heading into the Tour de France, but a series of crashes in the first week saw him well down the classification as the race entered the Pyrenees.

Sánchez moved ahead of Damiano Cunego in the final Time Trial to finish the Tour 6th overall and 5th after Contador's suspension, and winner of the mountains classification.

[20] In July, bad luck struck on the eighth stage of the Tour de France where he crashed heavily on a narrow road after 60 kilometres (37 miles) of racing.

Sanchez was forced to withdraw due to numerous injuries, namely a broken finger bone and a badly bruised upper back and shoulderblade.

[24] After riding the Giro d'Italia in support of Cadel Evans, Sánchez led the BMC Racing Team at the Vuelta a España, where he finished sixth.

[26] In the first months of 2016, Sánchez had better results than in his previous years at BMC Racing Team, and his contract was extended until the end of 2017.

[29] In the 2017 Tour of the Basque Country, Sánchez was close to a stage victory, but crashed and was injured; this injury plagued him for the first half of the year.

[30] On 13 May 2019, the UCI, the sport's governing body, suspended Sánchez for two years, effective from his initial provisional suspension on 17 August 2017.