2011 Fuzhou, Jiangxi bombings, Response
Many Chinese bloggers, weibo and Twitter users expressed sympathy for Qian Mingqi, with some calling him a "hero", and comparing him to Yang Jia, who killed Shanghai policemen after allegedly suffering mistreatment. Following the bombings, Qian's weibo page had attracted some 30,000 followers, before being shut down by Sina administrators. The Christian Science Monitor reported that most of the online commentators regarded Qian's actions not as a terrorist attack, but as  "righteous vengeance:"  "The flood of supportive comments online since his death is a sign of widespread public frustration at the government's disdain for ordinary citizens." VOA reported on 27 May that the death of Qian has sounded an alarm bell for Chinese government, and one blogger has said on his Twitter account:"...history will always remember Qian."


2011 Fuzhou, Jiangxi bombings, Response
In an interview, Li Chengpeng, one of China's most popular and influential bloggers, said "Qian was no Bin Laden, he was one of the weak, he had no way to express himself nor defend his rights."


2011 Fuzhou, Jiangxi bombings, Response
The Associated Press explained the outpouring of sympathy for Qian by observing that many citizens could relate to his tale of victimization at the hands of authorities, and to his frustration at the lack of channels to seek redress. The Associated Press observed that "Qian's grievances resonate widely in China, where land disputes have mushroomed amid a fast-paced economic boom. Standoffs between tenants and developers often turn violent, with homeowners beaten by thugs or even crushed by bulldozers. Other tenants have set themselves on fire rather than face eviction."


2011 Fylde Borough Council election
The 2011 Fylde Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of Fylde Borough Council in Lancashire, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.


2011 Fylde Borough Council election, Election result
The results saw the Conservatives keep a majority of 1 seat on the council with 26 of the 51 councillors, after suffering a net loss of 4 seats. Independents gained seats from the Conservatives in Clifton, Kirkham North and Medlar-with-Wesham wards, while also gaining seats in Freckleton East and Freckleton West after 2 sitting Conservative councillors stood as independents in the election. Overall turnout in the election was 44.6%.


2011 Fórmula Truck season
The 2011 Fórmula Truck season was the 16th Fórmula Truck season, the South American championship began on February 27 at Santa Cruz do Sul, while Brazilian Championship on April 3 in Rio de Janeiro and ended on December 4 at Brasília after ten rounds.


2011 Fórmula Truck season
Felipe Giaffone and Volkswagen won the title of South American and Brazilian championships.


2011 Fórmula Truck season, Teams and drivers
All drivers were Brazilian-registered, excepting Luis Pucci, who raced under Argentine racing license.


2011 Fórmula Truck season, Calendar
For the 2011 season of Fórmula Truck was created the South American Championship with three races, the first in Santa Cruz do Sul along with the Top Race,  the second at Interlagos and the third in Argentina on Juan y Oscar Gálvez also with Top Race. Two changes occurred in the calendar, Santa Cruz do Sul replaces  Velopark and Campo Grande leaves the calendar for the return to Goiânia.


2011 Fórmula Truck season, Championship standings, Drivers' championships, Brazilian
The top five after the race ensures a place on the podium.


2011 G20 Cannes summit
The 2011 G20 Cannes Summit was the sixth meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state in a series of on-going discussions about financial markets and the world economy.


2011 G20 Cannes summit
The G20 forum is the avenue for the G20 economies to discuss, plan and monitor international economiccooperation. While the summit achieved little progress on resolving the Eurozone crisis and providing concrete measures to addressing global financial imbalances, it did produce some tangible results, including the adoption of the Cannes Action Plan for Growth and Jobs, the launch of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and the endorsement of an Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture.


2011 G20 Cannes summit, Priorities
France put agriculture and food security at the heart of the G20 priorities. Around this broad theme, it divided the priorities of the Summit into six areas:


2011 G20 Cannes summit, Outcomes
The Summit took place in the aftermath of the 2007-08 financial crisis and in the midst of the evolving Eurozone crisis. Against this background, the outcomes of the Summit can be considered as insufficient in providing clear solutions for restoring and strengthening the global economy.


2011 G20 Cannes summit, Outcomes
However, the Summit did result in a number of initiatives, most notably in the area of agriculture and food security. Especially the launch of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and the endorsement of an Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture are tangible steps to addressing the world agriculture and food challenge. The G20 Summit also tasked the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative to produce and disseminate improved forecasts of agricultural production through the use of earth observations.


2011 G20 Cannes summit, Attendance
Attendance at the Cannes summit included leaders and representatives of the core members of the G20, which comprises 19 countries and the European Union which is represented by its two governing bodies, the European Council and the European Commission. Representatives of other nations and regional organizations were also invited to take part in the summit.


2011 G20 Cannes summit, Protests
At the summit protesters donned Robin Hood caps and demanded a tax on international financial transactions in order to provide aid to poor countries instead of catering to banking and other financial institutions. They also chanted slogans in opposition to "corporate greed" and supported a counter-G20 summit, "People First, Not Finance", organised by labour unions and NGOs such as Greenpeace and Oxfam. Though police reported 5,500 were part of the protests, the organisers estimated the number of protesters at 12,000. The riot police and helicopters limited the scope of the protests to a neighbourhood in the east of Nice, which was to host the alternative summit as well as the protests. Both Cannes and Nice also tightened security, with 12,000 police personnel being deployed.


2011 GA
2011 GA is a small asteroid that is a Near-Earth object and an Apollo asteroid.


2011 GA, Orbit
The orbit of 2011 GA makes it a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) that is predicted to pass within 0.02 AU (3,000,000 km; 1,900,000 mi) of the Earth on Oct 14, 2023. For comparison, the distance to the Moon is about 0.0026 AU (384,400 km). The asteroid passed within 0.06 AU (9,000,000 km; 5,600,000 mi) from Earth around October 15, 1977.


2011 GA, Orbit
The Jupiter Tisserand invariant, used to distinguish different kinds of orbits, is 3.821.


2011 GCC Champions League
The GCC Champions League (Arabic: دوري أبطال الخليج للأندية), was an annually organized football league tournament for club of the Arabian peninsula.


2011 GCC Champions League
The 2011 edition was the 26th time that it has been organized.


2011 GCC Champions League
The tournament has changed other the years, especially with the Asian Champions League taking up to four clubs from certain leagues meaning that this tournament generally no longer witnesses league winners participating but clubs invited to enter.


2011 GCC Games
The 2011 GCC Games was the first multi-sport event for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It was held in Bahrain, from 11 October to 22 October 2011. Around 1,500 sportspeople participated in 11 sports.


2011 GCC Games, Football
The Association football tournament at the 2011 Arab Gulf Games was held from 13 October to 22 October. All matches took place at Bahrain National Stadium in Riffa.


2011 GCC U-17 Championship
The 2011 GCC U-17 Championship took place in Qatar from August 5 to August 15. It was the 8th edition of the tournament.


2011 GCC U-17 Championship
UAE were the defending champions. Saudi Arabia won the tournament for the third time.


2011 GCC U-23 Championship
The 2011 Under 23 Gulf Cup will be the third edition of GCC U-23 Championship taking place in Qatar between 12 August and 21 August 2011. Six nations have entered.


2011 GEICO 400
The 2011 GEICO 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was scheduled to be held on September 18, 2011 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. However, because of wet track conditions, the race was postponed until September 19, 2011. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.500-mile (2.414 km) asphalt oval, it was the 27th race of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season, as well as the first race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season. Tony Stewart of Stewart Haas Racing won the race, while Kevin Harvick finished second, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. clinched third.


2011 GEICO 400
This was Stewart's first win in the 2011 season, and the 40th of his career. The result advanced Stewart to second in the Drivers' Championship, seven points behind Harvick and three ahead of Carl Edwards. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, thirty points ahead of Ford and thirty-eight ahead of Toyota, with nine races remaining in the season. A total of 95,000 people attended the race, while 3.68 million watched it on television.


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Background
Chicagoland Speedway is one of ten intermediate to hold NASCAR races; the others are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. The standard track at Chicagoland Speedway is a four-turn tri-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. The track's turns are each banked at 18 degrees and have a turn width of 55 feet. The racetrack has a grandstand capacity of 75,000.


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Background
Before the race, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick each led the Drivers' Championship with 2,012 points, with Jeff Gordon in third place with 2,009. Matt Kenseth had a total of 2,006 points, while Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Ryan Newman were tied for fifth place with 2,003 points. Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the first 12 positions with 2,000 points each. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 171 points, 27 points ahead of Ford. Toyota, with 139 points, was 21 points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. David Reutimann was the race's defending champion.


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held in preparation for the race; both on Friday. The first session lasted 90 minutes long, while the second was 60 minutes long. Reutimann was quickest with a time of 29.486 seconds in the first session, 0.028 seconds faster than Clint Bowyer. Mark Martin was just off Bowyer's pace, followed by Kyle Busch, Trevor Bayne, and Newman. Some Chase for the Sprint Cup participants were not scored high in the first practice, such as Johnson and Hamlin, who were 36th and 40th in the session.


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
In the second and final practice, Brian Vickers was quickest with a time of 29.304 seconds. Kasey Kahne followed in second, ahead of Kenseth and Paul Menard. Harvick was fifth quickest, with a time of 29.455 seconds. Gordon, Greg Biffle, Johnson, David Stremme, and Edwards rounded out the first ten positions. Kyle Busch, who was third in the first session, could only manage forty-fourth.


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Forty-seven cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Kenseth clinched his sixth pole position in the Sprint Cup Series, with a time of 29.469 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Menard. Kurt Busch qualified third, Newman took fourth, and Edwards started fifth. Johnson, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twelfth, while Harvick was scored thirtieth. The four drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Travis Kvapil, David Starr, Stephen Leicht and Mike Skinner (T.J. Bell was gonna enter the race but withdrew).


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Once qualifying concluded Kenseth said, "I think starting up front is nice, having a good pit stall. Hopefully, you can get a good start and get a bonus point for leading a lap and try to keep up with the track a little better. We've been qualifying a lot better, if you throw Richmond out, but we've been slipping a little at the end of the race. I'm really happy to be on the pole, but it's just a starting position, and we've got to work really hard on the race, keeping up with our adjustments and that type of thing."


2011 GEICO 400, Report, Race
The race, the twenty-seventh of the season, was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. EDT on September 18, but wet track conditions postponed the race to September 19, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. The race was televised live in the United States on ESPN.


2011 GP Miguel Induráin
The 2011 GP Miguel Induráin was the 58th edition of the GP Miguel Induráin cycle race and was held on 2 April 2011. The race started and finished in Estella. The race was won by Samuel Sánchez.


2011 GP Ouest–France
The 2011 GP Ouest-France was the 75th edition of the GP Ouest-France, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 28 August 2011, over a distance of 248.3 km (154.3 mi), starting and finishing in Plouay, France. It was the 23rd event of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.


2011 GP Ouest–France
Grega Bole, the Slovenian road race champion riding for the Lampre–ISD team, took the victory after an attack within the final 2 km (1.2 mi) of the race and managed to hold on to his advantage, as the rest of the field closed on him in the closing metres. Bole had been part of an eight-man breakaway, and held off Simon Gerrans – the winner of the race in 2009 – who took second place for Team Sky, while another previous race winner, Thomas Voeckler – the winner in 2007 – completed the podium for Team Europcar.


2011 GP2 Asia Series
The 2011 GP2 Asia Series was the fourth and final season of the GP2 Asia Series, and the second to be held entirely in a single calendar year. Rather than starting at the end of 2010 and running through the winter as with the previous two seasons of GP2 Asia, the 2011 season did not start until the beginning of February, to allow for the delivery of the brand new GP2/11 car to the teams and allow for testing before using it in the Asia Series. Previously the Asia Series had used the first generation GP2 car. The season also saw the début of three teams in the Series: two new teams, Carlin and Team Air Asia, as well as Racing Engineering, who had not competed in the Asia Series since its establishment.


2011 GP2 Asia Series
The season was originally scheduled for six races to be held at three meetings, beginning on 11 February at the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates, and finishing on 13 March at the Bahrain International Circuit. However, both meetings due to be held in Bahrain, scheduled for 17–19 February and 11–13 March, were cancelled due to anti-government protests in the country's capital, Manama. On 1 March 2011, series organisers added a replacement final round of the Asia Series, to be held at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy on 19–20 March.


2011 GP2 Asia Series
Inaugural Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean of the DAMS team won the championship for the second time after title rival Jules Bianchi of Lotus ART was taken out of the final race by Super Nova Racing's Fairuz Fauzy. Giedo van der Garde finished third for the Barwa Addax Team, taking podiums in both races at Imola. As well as feature race victories apiece for Grosjean and Bianchi, sprint race victories were taken by Stefano Coletti of Trident Racing and Dani Clos of Racing Engineering. As well as Grosjean's drivers' championship win, DAMS also claimed the teams' championship by three points from Lotus ART.


2011 GP2 Asia Series, Calendar
The calendar was announced on 7 October 2010, with three rounds to be held in February and March, down from four in 2009–2010. Organisers explained the reduction of the calendar as being necessary because of the need to deliver the brand-new Dallara GP2/11 chassis to all teams. Yas Marina hosted the season-opening event, before two scheduled meetings in Bahrain. The Bahrain events were subsequently cancelled due to civil unrest in the country, and was later replaced by a special event to be held at Imola. The race in Abu Dhabi was the first time the GP2/11 chassis was used.


2011 GP2 Asia Series, Results
Points are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 6 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race will also receive two points, and one point is given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points are awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.


2011 GP2 Final
The 2011 GP2 Final was a special round of the 2011 GP2 Series, supporting the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 and 13 November 2011. The race was originally scheduled to be the first round of the 2012 GP2 Asia championship, but with the GP2 Asia series being discontinued and absorbed into its parent series, the race was added to the GP2 Series calendar as a non-championship round.


2011 GP2 Final, Entry list
As the race was a non-championship event, several teams elected to run guest drivers in the place of their regular drivers.


2011 GP2 Series
The 2011 GP2 Series season was the forty-fifth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also seventh season under the GP2 Series moniker, the pan-European motor racing series for single specification open wheel GP2 cars. Thirteen teams competed over a nine event series that run from 7 May at Istanbul Park in Turkey to September 11 at Monza in Italy.


2011 GP2 Series
The series again performed the role of a series for developing emerging young drivers, acting as the principal supporting motor racing series that fills in time between sessions of the nine World Championship Formula One Grands Prix that are held in Europe. The championship was won by reigning GP2 Asia champion Romain Grosjean at the penultimate round of the series. Luca Filippi, Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic were all divided just by two points in their battle for the second, third and fourth places respectively. Christian Vietoris, Davide Valsecchi, Stefano Coletti, Esteban Gutiérrez and Fabio Leimer was the other race winners.


2011 GP2 Series
Following a three-year cycle, the previous GP2 chassis was replaced by a brand new car, the GP2/11, built by Italian racing car manufacturer Dallara. The engine configuration remained the same until the end of the 2017 season, with the only modifications being to the exhaust systems. The series changed tyre supplier from Bridgestone to Pirelli for 2011–13. The 2011 season saw the addition of two new teams to the grid, Carlin and Team AirAsia. Meanwhile, DPR was not selected to continue in the series.


2011 GP2 Series
On 22 November 2010 it was announced that Renault would no longer badge their Mecachrome GP2 Series engines, instead of Mecachrome would run its own engine program from 2011 onwards. All GP2 Series cars had a reverse gear for the first time in the series.


2011 GP2 Series, Teams and drivers
This section lists drivers who competed in the regular season. For the drivers who competed in the non-championship race in Abu Dhabi, see 2011 GP2 Final.


2011 GP2 Series, 2011 Schedule
The 2011 calendar was announced on 21 December 2010. The series will consist of nine rounds, one less than in 2010, as the Abu Dhabi round will return to the GP2 Asia Series and will not be replaced. It will support all the European Formula One events.


2011 GP2 Series, 2011 Schedule
On 12 July 2011, it was announced that a non-championship round will take place in Abu Dhabi under the name 2011 GP2 Final.


2011 GP2 Series, Championship standings
Points are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 6 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race will also receive two points, and one point is given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points are awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.


2011 GP3 Series
The 2011 GP3 Series season was the second season of the GP3 Series, a feeder series for the GP2 Series. The season began at Istanbul Park on 7 May and concluded at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 11 September after eight rounds made up of two races each and all in support of European Formula 1 Grands Prix. The 2010 champion Esteban Gutiérrez graduated to the GP2 Series so did not defend his title.


2011 GP3 Series
After the early rounds, the likes of Mitch Evans, Nigel Melker, Andrea Caldarelli and Alexander Sims were fighting for the championship lead. However, Caldarelli had to retire from the series due to failing to raise a sufficient budget for the whole season. Sims then held the lead after consistent podium finishes in both Valencia and Silverstone. This was not to last though, as the Finn Valtteri Bottas started to find his speed at Nürburgring, taking the top spot after winning the first race at Hungaroring while Sims was disqualified due rear floor height check. Bottas led the championship with 7 points from Sims. Total of 6 drivers were within 13 points from Bottas at that time.


2011 GP3 Series
Bottas was able to secure the title in the first race of Monza. In that race he took the chequered flag and his closest rival and team-mate James Calado was left to second place. As 7 points is the maximum from Sunday's race and Bottas had more victories than Calado, the 7-point gap between them was enough for Bottas to clinch the title with one race still to go.


2011 GP3 Series, 2011 Schedule
The 2011 calendar was announced on 18 January 2011. The series consisted of eight rounds. A prospective ninth round in Monaco was dropped on 2 February 2011 due to a lack of paddock space. It supported every other European Formula One event.


2011 GT Brasil season
The 2011 Itaipava GT Brasil season is the fifth season of GT Brasil. It will begin on 10 April Interlagos and end on December 18 in the same circuit after ten weekends totalling twenty races will include a support at the São Paulo Indy 300..


2011 GT Brasil season
Matheus Stumpf and Valdeno Brito clinched championship victory in the GT3 class, winning the championship by 39 points over their closest competitors. Stumpf and Brito won seven races during the season. Second place went to Xandy Negrão and Xandinho Negrão, and third place for Rafael Derani and Claudio Ricci.


2011 GT Brasil season
Caio Lara and Cristiano Federico won the GT4 Class, won six races during the season including sweeping the weekend at Anhembi and at second meeting to be held in Curitiba, as well as a victory at Velopark and Campo Grande.


2011 GT Brasil season, Rules changes and entries
The scoring system, which includes the fifteen finishers last year, will reward only the top ten of each race in 2011. Pirelli becomes the sole supplier of tires and for the first time in history, have pit stops for tire changes during the races of Rio de Janeiro in September and Campo Grande in October.


2011 GT Brasil season, Rules changes and entries
The category wins new cars in 2011, Corvette Z06-R GT3, Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 and Ferrari 458 Italia in GT3 and Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 in GT4. During the championship some cars entered in the category, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in GT3 and Maserati GranTurismo MC in GT4


2011 GT Brasil season, Championship standings, Drivers' championships, GT3
The top five after the race ensures a place on the podium.


2011 GT4 European Cup
The 2011 GT4 European Cup season was the fifth season of the GT4 European Cup. It began on 23 April at Zandvoort, and was scheduled to finish at the same venue on 16 October after eighteen races held at six meetings.


2011 Gabonese legislative election
Parliamentary elections were held in Gabon on 17 December 2011. Amidst an opposition boycott, the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) won a landslide victory; official results were announced on 21 December 2011, showing that the PDG won 113 out of 120 seats, the most it had won since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. A few other parties won the handful of seats remaining: the Rally for Gabon (RPG) won three seats, while the Circle of Liberal Reformers (CLR), the Independent Centre Party (PGCI), Social Democratic Party (PSD), and the Union for the New Republic (UPRN) won a single seat each.


2011 Gabonese legislative election
Turnout was 34%, with many opposition supporters choosing to boycott.


2011 Gabonese legislative election, Results
Alongside the PDG, the Rally for Gabon, Circle of Liberal Reformers, Independent Centre Party, Democratic and Republican Alliance, Morena–Original, Rally for Democracy and Progress were all part of the Republican Majority for Emergence coalition.


2011 Gabonese protests
The 2011 Gabonese protests is mass protests and violent protests against the government of Ali Bongo and his cabinet in Gabon, inspired by the Tunisian Revolution and 2011 Egyptian Revolution, mainly the Arab Spring, will calls for pan-Sub-Saharan reforms and calling for the government to step down.


2011 Gabonese protests, Background
The wave and period of massive anti-government protests and street demonstrations started as an opposition rally and unprecedented announcement of the instatement of opposition activist Andre Mba Obame as president; supporters came onto the streets in support of the plan. The protests was also dispersed and met with extreme force, like Tear gas and Rubber bullets.


2011 Gabonese protests, Protests
The protesters was marching first in Libreville, demonstrating against the federal government of Ali Bongo and calling on him to resign. The protest movement gained momentum, gaining attention on international outlets. The protests erupted in support of the opposition and solidarity marches was scheduled nationwide, despite a crackdown on sustained nationwide anti-government rallies. As soon as the protests began, the security forces responded to the anti-government street protests by Tear gas. After a tide of protests, the demonstrations was quelled by the police and opposition was banned. No concessions was made and the demands with protesters was suppressed.


2011 Gamba Osaka season
The 2011 Gamba Osaka season was Gamba Osaka's 19th season in the J.League Division 1 and 25th overall in the Japanese top flight. It also includes the 2011 J.League Cup, 2011 Emperor's Cup, and the 2011 AFC Champions League.


2011 Gambian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the Gambia on 24 November 2011. Incumbent President Yahya Jammeh, in office since seizing power in a 1994 coup, faced Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party and Hamat Bah of the National Alliance for Democracy and Development.


2011 Gambian presidential election
The elections were won by Jammeh, who received 72% of the vote on an 83% turnout.


2011 Gambian presidential election, Electoral system
Voting took place using marbles dropped into coloured containers each containing a gong.


2011 Gambian presidential election, Conduct
The elections were monitored by the African Union who praised the process, European Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Commonwealth. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) did not send any monitors because of "an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power... and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation".


2011 Gambian presidential election, Conduct
Before the elections Jammeh had claimed "I will never compromise peace and stability at the altar of so-called democracy", that "there is no way I can lose unless you tell me that all Gambian people are mad" and in response to press criticism said "The journalists are less than 1% of the population and if anybody expects me to allow less than 1% of the population to destroy 99% of the population, you are in the wrong place."


2011 Gambian presidential election, Conduct
On the election day Bah claimed that he had not heard of any intimidation of his supporters although Darboe claimed the vote was fraudulent, rejected the result and complained of intimidation from the presence of military vehicles on the streets. The Independent Electoral Commission also said there was no intimidation and that "it is impossible to rig elections in Gambia".


2011 Gambian presidential election, Conduct
There was also criticism of the election organisation as many voters went to the wrong polling station.


2011 Games of the Small States of Europe
The 14th Games of the Small States of Europe, also known as the XIVth Games of the Small States of Europe were held between 30 May – 4 June 2011 in multiple municipalities in Liechtenstein. The Games featured competition by the 9 members of the GSSE in nine sports, with three of the sports featuring seven disciplines. Events were located in nine different municipalities in the country.


2011 Games of the Small States of Europe
Liechtenstein was not opposed in their bid for the 2011 Games, possibly because it was the country's turn to host the Games based on the event's rotation. The 2011 Games marked the second time Liechtenstein has hosted the Games, following the country's hosting of the 8th edition in 1999. These were the first games with the participation of Montenegro.


2011 Games of the Small States of Europe, Games, Sports
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sport.


2011 Gangwon FC season
The 2011 season was Gangwon FC's third season in the K-League in South Korea. Gangwon FC will be competing in K-League, League Cup and Korean FA Cup.


2011 Gangwon FC season, Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2011 Gangwon FC season, Current squad, Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2011 Gansu school bus crash
On November 16, 2011, a school bus run by a private kindergarten collided head-on with a coal truck in Zhengning County, Gansu, China. Nineteen children were killed, as were two adults.


2011 Gansu school bus crash, Incident
The bus was originally a nine-seat van, but it had been modified to carry more passengers, and was severely overcrowded. 62 children were on board at the time of the crash, along with the two adults. It was involved in a head-on collision with a truck.


2011 Gansu school bus crash, Aftermath
The school's owner, Li Jungang, was arrested on "suspicion of causing traffic casualties"; the parents of each child killed were to be awarded 436,000 yuan in compensation. The government immediately closed the school and opened a public one in its place, with a 45-seat bus donated by an oil company.


2011 Gansu school bus crash, Aftermath
The accident caused a great deal of outcry on the Chinese Internet, with many posters criticizing the small amount of money spent on education. Further criticism was leveled at the government when it was announced shortly after the crash that China would donate 23 school buses to North Macedonia; many microbloggers questioned the propriety of donating decent vehicles to a foreign country while subjecting Chinese children to substandard conditions.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash
On 5 March 2011, an Antonov An-148 passenger jet broke up in mid-air and crashed on the outskirts of Garbuzovo, a village in the Belgorod Oblast of Russia. All six crew members, the only people on board, were killed. The aircraft was on a demonstration flight prior to delivery to the Myanmar Air Force. The subsequent investigation concluded that the aircraft broke up after the crew allowed it to substantially exceed its maximum design speed during a practice emergency descent.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Accident
The An-148 was on a local demonstration flight from Pridacha Airport in Voronezh, Russia, where it had been built by aircraft manufacturer VASO. The aircraft was being readied for delivery to the Myanmar Air Force, two representatives of which were on board. The other four crew, all Russians, were two pilots and two engineers.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Accident
At 10:40 Moscow time, the aircraft crashed at Garbuzovo, a small village in the Alexeevsky Region of the Belgorod Oblast, some 560 kilometres (350 mi) south of Moscow, narrowly missing some houses.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Accident
The wreckage was found strewn along a 3 km (2 mi) track, after witnesses on the ground reported seeing parts of the airframe breaking off before impact. None of the six people on board survived.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a twinjet Antonov An-148-100E, c/n 41-03, carrying test registration 61708. It was operating its 32nd flight, in preparation for delivery to the Myanmar air force. Just days before the accident, the type had been granted extended certification.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Investigation
The Russian Ministry of Industry opened an investigation into the accident. A criminal investigation was launched by the Investigative Committee of Russia to decide whether violation of flight regulations occurred. The flight recorders were recovered, and the whole wreckage was transported to the VASO plant for examination.


2011 Garbuzovo Antonov An-148 crash, Investigation
The investigation was completed in April 2011, and concluded that the crew inadvertently permitted the aircraft to accelerate over 110 km/h (68 mph) above its maximum design speed, or never exceed speed (VNE), during an emergency descent. The abnormal aerodynamic stress exceeded the strength of the airframe, inducing low-frequency oscillations that eventually resulted in structural failure and in-flight break-up. Contributing factors were lack of proper crew coordination in executing the emergency descent, deviations from recommended procedures and the misleading indications provided by basic flight instruments while outside normal operating conditions.


2011 Gardner–Webb Runnin' Bulldogs football team
The 2011 Gardner–Webb Runnin' Bulldogs football team represented Gardner–Webb University in the 2011 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Runnin' Bulldogs were led by first-year head coach Ron Dickerson, Jr. and played their home games at Ernest W. Spangler Stadium. They are a member of the Big South Conference. They finished the season 4–7, 2–4 in Big South play to finish in a tie for fifth place.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season
The 2011 season for the Garmin–Cervélo cycling team began in January at the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Noosa Grand Prix. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season
For 2011, the team added Cervélo as a major co-sponsor, after they had, for two seasons, fronted their own professional team, the Cervélo TestTeam. Seven riders from Cervélo TestTeam joined Garmin-Cervélo for 2011, perhaps chief among them reigning world champion Thor Hushovd.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season
The team took 26 victories in 2011, 25 of which officially count. After having raced the Tour de France for the last three years without any victories, they took four stage wins and the team award at the 2011 Tour. Also a first for the team, they held the yellow jersey for a week with Hushovd. They also placed a rider in the top ten overall – Tom Danielson in ninth. They also took stage wins at both of the season's other Grand Tours, though their Giro d'Italia was marred by the death of Wouter Weylandt, a close friend of Garmin-Cervélo rider Tyler Farrar.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season
Garmin-Cervélo had wins in each month of the season and with 11 different riders, in addition to a team time trial at the Tour de France. Shortly after the team's lone stage race overall win of the year, the season-opening Tour Down Under, the board of directors fired Matt White, who had been a member of the team's management since 2008, for reasons relating to medical treatment of a former rider.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races
Before the spring season and the races known as classics, the team was active in the Vuelta a Mallorca series of one-day races. Farrar won the first, the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca, after a field sprint, but this result does not count in the UCI's official records. Beginning with the 2011 season, the UCI has banned race radios from all 1.HC, 2.HC, and below events, having previously banned them at 1.2, 2.2, and national events in 2010 (bans for World Tour races are planned for 2012). The ban is extremely unpopular among teams and riders.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races
Since the Vuelta a Mallorca is a series of 1.1 races, it is covered by the ban. However, prior to the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca, most of the riders in the race signed in wearing radios anyway, in defiance of the ban, and refused to remove them, in protest both of the ban itself and of the UCI making major decisions without the teams' input. Consequently, the UCI's commissaires refused to officiate the race and declared its results moot. The next day, Farrar won the Trofeo Cala Millor without controversy, edging HTC–Highroad's John Degenkolb in a depleted group sprint.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races
The riders did not protest nor strike, deciding against doing so in the best interests of the race organizers after the UCI threatened to cancel the race altogether if they did. The squad was also victorious in the final Vuelta a Mallorca race, the Trofeo Magaluf-Palmanova. Though the course, with five categorized climbs, suggested a breakaway winner, Fischer took the team's ninth victory of the season from a 20-rider sprint finish.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
The team was active at the traditional Belgian opener, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Maaskant figured into a 12-man breakaway that formed as the morning's initial break was caught. Sebastian Langeveld and Juan Antonio Flecha went on to decide the race among themselves, with Maaskant finishing seventh 90 seconds back. Farrar just missed out on the podium at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne. He took fourth in the field sprint finish.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
At the first monument race of the season, Milan–San Remo, the team was thought to be one of the top favorites. They had three potential candidates for victory in Hushovd, Farrar, and Haussler, all of whom had shown good form during the season and Farrar and Haussler had race wins to their credit. They admitted that they each envisioned different scenarios which would lead to their respective potential victories, possibly complicating things for the team, but they remained committed to riding as a team.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Each was separately viewed by analysts or fellow riders as a favorite for the day, as well. The race played out differently from these expectations. On the Le Manie climb, 90 kilometers (56 mi) from the finish, Hushovd crashed from roughly the middle of the peloton, leading to the race effectively being split in two. The crash also cost Hushovd one of his wheels.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
While teammate Vansummeren obligingly offered the world champion one of his, Hushovd stated after the race that the crash ended his chances at victory, since he could not pedal at full strength due to a hip injury. Farrar was also caught behind this split, but Haussler was able to make the selection. He had his choice leadout man Klier with him, but he was unable to make the day's final split on the Poggio, finishing the race in 18th place 27 seconds behind the eight-rider group who contested the win.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
After the race, team manager Vaughters admitted that the race had not gone to plan, and attributed Haussler not making the selection on the Poggio to a lack of endurance stemming from not having ridden a Grand Tour or any single-day race of this length in nearly two full seasons. Vaughters also stated that this race made for a good example of why it is usually folly to designate a leader in advance of a single-day race, since nearly anything can happen on any given day.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Farrar, Haussler, and Hushovd drew frequent mention as pre-race favorites and contenders at events like Dwars door Vlaanderen, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, and Gent–Wevelgem. While the team had solid high placings at each of these races, they missed out on winning any of them. At Dwars door Vlaanderen, two riders finished ahead of the fast-charging reduced peloton to decide the race themselves. Nick Nuyens and Geraint Thomas had no measurable time gap over the field, but held on for first and second places.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Farrar won the sprint from the 30-man peloton, but it was not for the victory, instead merely to round out the podium in third place. Fabian Cancellara took a dominant win at the E3, finishing a minute clear of the next group on the road. Vanmarcke was part of that second group, narrowly missing out in the sprint for the remaining podium places to take fourth overall. Farrar was again third at Gent–Wevelgem, finishing behind Tom Boonen and Daniele Bennati in a hectic reduced sprint. In April, Hesjedal took fourth behind Samuel Sánchez at the GP Miguel Indurain.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Garmin-Cervélo was again touted as a strong team for the season's second monument, the Tour of Flanders, with Hushovd perhaps seen as the strongest of the team's three leaders. Noted in the team's favor was the leadership of sporting director Peter Van Petegem, twice a winner of this race. On race day, Hammond made the day's first major breakaway group, one which stayed away over the first ten cobbled climbs. Hushovd effectively stayed at the front of the race most of the day, even chasing back on to the front after puncturing on the Taaienberg.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
However, attacks from the likes of Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara on the Leberg gapped him off to the point that he never was able to rejoin the front of the race. He finished with the second large group on the road, over four minutes down, in 54th place. Garmin-Cervélo had no riders factor into the race's finale; Farrar fared slightly better than Hushovd, leading the first large group across the finish line, but he was a minute and a half down in 12th place. Haussler was over eight minutes back, having never been a factor in the race. After yet another disappointing showing in a major spring classic, one post-race analysis suggested the team should no longer be considered favorites in single-day races.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Hushovd was again named as a pre-race favorite for the season's third monument, Paris–Roubaix. Farrar and Haussler also rode this race, but they have not had the track record of successes in it that Hushovd has, considering that the Norwegian finished on the podium in both the 2009 and 2010 editions. The race was run aggressively, with nearly 100 kilometers (62 mi) covered, incidentally almost the exact distance to the first cobbled sector, in the first two hours of racing.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
After a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks on and around the Arenberg Trench, the race's most storied and difficult cobbled sector, 21 riders had opened up a gap of two and a half minutes on the race's main favorites, namely Hushovd and Fabian Cancellara. Garmin-Cervélo had Vansummeren and Rasch in this group. Cancellara tried several times to get clear of the group of favorites, but succeeded only in having Hushovd, BMC Racing Team's Alessandro Ballan, and Juan Antonio Flecha of Team Sky follow his wheel while contributing no work themselves.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
After a while, Cancellara gave up his efforts, deciding that it was not to his advantage to pull Hushovd, a superior sprinter, to the front of the race. At the Mons-en-Pévèle sector 60 kilometers (37 mi) from the finish, Vanmarcke and Astana's Tomas Vaitkus got clear of the Cancellara group for a time. When they were later brought back, Vanmarcke stayed on the front and did work to help pull the group of favorites nearer to the leaders out front.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
With 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) remaining, Vansummeren surged clear at the front of the race, and quickly took a time gap. Around that same time, Cancellara put in his most intensive pull. Only Hushovd and Ballan could follow, and the Swiss time trial ace very quickly caught every member of the early breakaway that was still out front, with the exception of Vansummeren. There was simply not enough road left to bring back the Belgian. He entered the Roubaix Velodrome alone and took the biggest win of his career 19 seconds ahead of a rapidly closing Cancellara in second.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Hushovd finished eighth, fading slightly towards the finish. Vanmarcke held on for 20th despite taking a strong pull at the front of the favorites group. Only HTC–Highroad also placed three finishers in the top 20. The win was only the second professional race Vansummeren had ever won, after a stage in the 2007 Tour de Pologne. He proposed marriage to his longtime girlfriend after the race – she said yes.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Vaughters praised Vansummeren's ride, finding it appropriate with the team's character that a rider who spends almost his entire career in the service of other riders would attain such a prestigious win. He stated that though Cancellara was clearly the strongest rider in the race, Garmin-Cervélo had been the strongest team. He called it his proudest moment as a team boss and said that the result had fulfilled his personal goal of winning one monument race in 2011. Post-race analysis concurred that the result had redeemed the team for their lackluster showings earlier in the spring season.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
The next major race in the spring season was the Amstel Gold Race. This race, like the other Ardennes classics to follow, is much more hilly than the cobbled classics, and thus the three leaders from earlier in the season were not part of the team's squad. The team did send the runner-up from the 2010 race, Hesjedal, and he felt himself to be on strong form entering the race.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
However, the Canadian was quite sick on race day, with stomach issues that caused him to be second from last in this year's edition, over 14 minutes down on the winner. The team's best finisher was Fischer in 28th. Hesjedal had largely recovered for La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but he was not a factor in the conclusion to either race, coming 13th in Flèche Wallonne and 29th in Liège. He was the team's best finisher in Liège, but Le Mével did him better in Flèche Wallonne, riding to ninth place to secure 6 UCI rankings points.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
Martin took his first win of the season at the Giro della Toscana in June. Le Mével had been part of the last breakaway group to be caught before the finale, occupying first position on the road into the final kilometer of the race on the steep Stoppe d'Arca climb. Martin was part of a six-man group that caught and overhauled him, and he won the sprint to deliver for the team.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Spring classics
The team also sent squads to the Clásica de Almería, Montepaschi Strade Bianche, the Scheldeprijs, the Brabantse Pijl, ProRace Berlin, and the Tour de Rijke, but finished no higher than 12th in any of these races.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Fall races
The team had few noteworthy performances in the later season single-day races. Kreder took tenth in a 25-rider sprint finish to the Coppa Ugo Agostoni in August. He was likewise tenth at Vattenfall Cyclassics, in a 34-rider finale. Hushovd turned in a strong ride at the GP Ouest-France, taking fourth place in an odd finish. Sprinter Grega Bole jumped early for the win, while attackers Simon Gerrans and Thomas Voeckler were caught out between him and the peloton behind for second and third.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Fall races
Hushovd led the peloton across the line for fourth, but all the riders were credited with the same finishing time. Martin took a further two podium placings at Italian races in October. He finished third in the Memorial Marco Pantani, before just missing out on the victory at the fall monument, the Giro di Lombardia. He was the strongest rider in the five-rider chase group that trailed solo winner Oliver Zaugg, and won the sprint to take second overall. Millar rode to fifth place in the Chrono des Nations individual time trial, before Haussler closed out the team's season by winning a national-level event in his native Australia, the Noosa Grand Prix.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, One-day races, Fall races
The team also sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián, Tre Valli Varesine, Druivenkoers Overijse, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Giro dell'Emilia, the GP Bruno Beghelli, Paris–Tours, and the Giro del Piemonte, but finished no higher than 11th in any of these races.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
The team entered the Tour Down Under with a squad led by Farrar, who sought to win the race overall. After failing to figure in the finish to stage 1, Farrar was conclusively ruled out of any overall contention due to a stage 2 crash. At this point, the team specifically turned to Cameron Meyer for their overall chances, and he delivered. In stage 4, Meyer and Wilson both made the day's breakaway, and in a happening rare in the Tour Down Under's history, the breakaway stayed away.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Back in the peloton, their teammates rode at the front of the group to try to thwart the plans of Omega Pharma–Lotto, Team Sky, and HTC–Highroad to get another mass finish. Meyer won the stage, with Wilson fading to fourth toward the end. The break's time gap over the main field gave Meyer the overall race leadership. It was the first time in his career that Meyer had ever been a race leader, and with the race's queen stage to Willunga ahead, he was nervous of being able to hold the lead.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
In the Willunga stage, Meyer finished with the leading group, holding onto his race lead, though it was narrowed to 8 seconds due to fellow stage winner Matthew Goss getting bonus seconds at the finish line for his third place. In the Adelaide criterium to close the race, Meyer preserved his lead, emerging as Tour champion. Goss, however, mounted a spirited challenge, winning bonus time not only at the finish but also in the first intermediate sprint, coming up two seconds short in the final overall standings.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
As he had been in his two seasons with Cervélo TestTeam, Haussler was active in the Tour of Qatar in February. After finishing second to Tom Boonen in stage 1, Haussler won stage 2, outkicking Daniele Bennati at the finish, and moved within one second of Boonen in the overall classification. Though he had won the event's points classification in each of the last two years, this was Haussler's first ever stage win at the Tour of Qatar.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
In stage 3, Boonen flatted at a critical moment when the peloton was at its top speed and lost three minutes, leaving the top of the overall standings wide open. Haussler picked up a second consecutive stage win in Mesaieed, and in so doing he also moved into the overall race leadership. He credited the win to the team treating the third stage like a one-day classic, while also mentioning that HTC–Highroad's Bernhard Eisel performed an effective leadout for all the sprinters at the finish.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Haussler lost the overall lead in stage 4, as HTC–Highroad's Mark Renshaw took the stage win and opened a six-second gap with his time bonus at the finish. Haussler was a distant ninth in the event's final stage, meaning the bonus time on offer went wanting and he finished second overall, though winning the points classification for the third year in a row. Similarly continuing Cervélo TestTeam's legacy, the squad won the teams classification as their antecedents also had in each of the previous two editions.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Haussler stated that he was pleasantly surprised by his early-season form and hoped it would portend for Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. At Paris–Nice in March, Haussler won the points classification without winning any stage. He had stage finishes in every position from second through fifth, however. At the concurrent Tirreno–Adriatico, Farrar won the first road race stage after an effective leadout from Hushovd. The next stage was also flat, and Hushovd again performed a leadout that was strong in form, but it was perhaps too strong this time. The world champion opened up a slight gap on Farrar in the final kilometer, and left him to sprint for the line from 600 meters (2,000 ft) out. Farrar lost out at the last moment to Saxo Bank–SunGard's Juan José Haedo.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Martin was the beneficiary at the Volta a Catalunya of an injury sustained by Team RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer. The American had occupied a podium spot, second, before the flat final stage, but a re-occurrence of an abdominal injury left him physically unable to complete the race. Leipheimer's withdrawal moved Martin onto the event's final podium in third. Kreder claimed a surprise win at the Circuit de la Sarthe, pipping race leader Daniele Bennati at the end of stage 2 after the Italian had started his sprint early from an early leadout.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Zabriskie won the long time trial at the Tour de Romandie. He bettered all the intermediate time checks of early stage leader Richie Porte, and was two seconds better than the Australian at the finish. While Zabriskie has a reputation as a top time trial specialist, this was the first individual time trial in Europe that he had won since the 2006 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, and first victory of any kind since a road race win in the 2010 Tour of California. The team attended the Tour of California with a squad led by two-time runner-up Zabriskie.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
He effectively lost any chance at winning the race overall in stage 4, when he cracked on the Sierra Road climb and finished 32nd, nearly five minutes down on the day's winner (and eventual Tour winner) Chris Horner. He rebounded two days later to win the Solvang time trial, ahead of three-time winner Levi Leipheimer in a new course-record time. Danielson and Vandevelde had fared somewhat better in the climbing stages and finished the race in third and fourth overall, respectively. Zabriskie's final position was 33rd.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
After being shut out for the first few months of the season, world champion Hushovd took his first win in the rainbow jersey at the Tour de Suisse. On a slight uphill finish at Huttwil, Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan led out from a group about half the size of the full peloton, but Hushovd caught and surpassed him. The two had sprinted so strongly that they opened up a two-second time gap on the rest of the field. Farrar rode well at the partially concurrent Ster ZLM Toer.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
He took a field sprint win to stage 2, his first victory since the death of his friend Wouter Weylandt in the Giro d'Italia. Adding a third place on stage 5 gave Farrar the win in the race's points classification. The squad also won the team prize, and Navardauskas finished on the event's final podium in third place.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
Martin entered the Tour de Pologne as the defending champion. After three stages suited to sprinters, Martin took second behind Peter Sagan on stage 4 at Cieszyn, finishing three seconds back on a final cobbled climb. The result moved him into fourth place overall, seven seconds back. Martin won stage 6, the Tour's queen stage at Bukowina Tatrzańska, taking the race lead in the process.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
While both Sagan and Martin finished in the peloton on the Tour's final day, Sagan took bonus seconds on course and at the finish, to displace Martin from the top of the standings and emerge as Tour de Pologne champion. Martin finished second overall. Sagan, Martin, and Skil–Shimano's Marcel Kittel were the only riders to win stages in the event. At the Eneco Tour, Millar finished on the final podium. He took third behind Taylor Phinney and Edvald Boasson Hagen, and held third place after every subsequent stage.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
In September, Hushovd took his last win in the rainbow jersey at the Tour of Britain. On a stage profile typical to those which have favored the veteran sprinter in his later career, Hushovd came first in a reduced uphill group sprint in Caerphilly. Haussler took his third and final win of the season at the inaugural Tour of Beijing, coming first in a full field sprint finish to stage 2, the first road race.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Stage races
The team also sent squads to the Tour Méditerranéen, the Tour du Haut Var, the Tour of Oman, the Vuelta a Murcia, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, the Tour de Picardie, Bayern-Rundfahrt, the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Delta Tour Zeeland, the Brixia Tour, the Tour of Denmark, and the Tour of Utah, but did not achieve a stage win, classification win, or podium finish in any of them.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Originally, Le Mével and Martin were set to share leadership duties at the Giro d'Italia, though about a week and a half before the race was to begin Martin was pulled due to allergies. Millar, Farrar, Wilson, and Lancaster were named to the squad at that time, with Peterson, Cameron Meyer, Fischer, and Stetina eventually rounding out the squad. The squad held the stage 1 team time trial and subsequently taking the first pink jersey as an immediate goal, having done exactly that in the equivalent stage at the 2008 Giro d'Italia.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
The team's plan was for Le Mével to ride for the overall, Farrar and Millar for stage wins, and the other riders for support. Stetina made his Grand Tour debut in this race, with his goal simply to finish. The squad finished fifth in the team time trial, coming home with the minimum of five riders together 24 seconds off the winning time set by HTC–Highroad. Farrar was a relatively distant seventh in the group sprint finish to stage 2. He described it as a missed opportunity, with the leadout train faltering at the 600 meters (2,000 ft) to go mark, though he anticipated at least three further sprint opportunities in the Giro.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
In stage 3, Millar bridged to a leading quartet in the final 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) of the stage, staying away with them to finish second on the stage and with a sufficient time gap over the peloton that he became the new race leader. This group also included teammate Le Mével, and had he taken any of the time bonuses he and not Millar would have taken the race lead.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
However, the race and the entire cycling world were turned sideways by the death of Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt after crashing on the descent of the day's last climb, the Passo del Bocco. Other than Weylandt's own team, Garmin-Cervélo was perhaps the team most affected. Millar, in the role of race leader, took up the task of organizing the tributes to Weylandt in the next day's stage.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Weylandt's death was especially hard on Farrar, as the two had been close friends and training partners, resulting from Farrar relocating to Weylandt's hometown of Ghent, Belgium when he first became a professional. Farrar said that Weylandt was "like another brother to [him]" and that his death left him "unbearably saddened." The peloton neutralized stage 4, with each team riding on the front for approximately 15 minutes and there being no competitive racing at any time. The final team to take to the front was Weylandt's Leopard Trek squad, who rode side-by-side in the stage's final kilometers.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
They also invited Farrar up to ride with them, and the nine of them crossed the finish line first together. Millar quietly led the remainder of the peloton across the line a few seconds later. No results for the stage were recorded for any of the race's classifications. Farrar, as well as the remaining Leopard Trek squad, decided to leave the Giro after this neutralized ride. He later revealed that Leopard Trek's decision to include him as they crossed the line was made on the spur of the moment and had not been decided ahead of time.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Millar rode as race leader in stage 5, the first stage competitively raced after Weylandt's death, but he was unable to retain the jersey. He finished two minutes 50 seconds behind the day's winner and new race leader Pieter Weening, as he was unable to stay near the front of the race on the unpaved or 'white' roads that lead into Orvieto. Millar's run in pink had made him the first British rider ever to hold the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours, though with Weylandt's death he had not really had much of a chance to enjoy it.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Le Mével, however, had a good day, finishing eight seconds back of Weening with the group of overall race favorites. He took fourth place on the day, just missing out on the day's time bonuses for the top three – had he taken any of them, he would have become the new race leader instead of Weening.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Le Mével then finished highly placed in the next three stages as well, coming in seventh on an uphill sprint to Fiuggi in stage 6,  tenth on the Giro's first summit finish at Montevergine di Mercogliano in stage 7, and ninth in the first large group on stage 8. His consistent high finishes had him second in the points classification at that time. While stage winner, new race leader, and eventual Giro champion Alberto Contador took a great deal of time out of the rest of the field on Etna in stage 9, Le Mével's overall position actually improved, from fourth to third.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Stage 11 was heavily undulating, to the point where Contador seemed to suggest that he would tactically surrender the pink jersey and not have his team mount an aggressive chase of the day's inevitable breakaway. Le Mével made the breakaway, and being third overall, he was its best-placed rider. He said he went for the break on instinct, and had not planned to escape, since he figured his high GC position would keep him from being allowed up the road.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
In the peloton, Millar and Fischer both spoke with Contador to ask whether he would be content to allow Le Mével to take the jersey. However, Michele Scarponi's Lampre–ISD team led the chase, hoping to give their captain a win near his home. The breakaway group was caught, and Le Mével faded further toward the finish, losing 13 seconds in a late split in the field. Le Mével said after the stage, "The pink jersey doesn't want me!" and conceded that despite coming close multiple times he would not gain the race lead in this Giro. He hoped to finish the race in the top ten overall. He also revealed that he had spoken to Contador's teammate Richie Porte before the stage, who confirmed to him that their team would not try to retain the jersey.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Seemingly per his expectations, Le Mével lost considerable time on stage 13 on the Grossglockner in Austria. He was 26th on the day, ceding nearly four minutes to Contador and about two and a half minutes to the rest of the race's top riders, falling from fourth to 16th overall. The squad was then quite quiet for the remainder of the Giro. After Farrar's withdrawal, Lancaster, Wilson, and Fischer also left the Giro for health reasons.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Giro d'Italia
Le Mével continued to be active, making a winning breakaway in stage 17, but he was the last breakaway rider to finish ahead of the peloton, gaining a mere 23 seconds for his effort and remaining in 16th place. The squad then turned their attentions to the final day individual time trial. Meyer and Millar both targeted it. Millar was among the earliest starters on the day and posted the winning time, with only HTC–Highroad's Alex Rasmussen threatening his position. The victory gave Millar stage wins in all three Grand Tours for his career to go along with his previous distinction of holding the leader's jersey in all three. Le Mével finished the race as the team's top rider, in 15th place.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Garmin-Cervélo's squad for the Tour included two riders who had never participated in it before, Navardauskas and Danielson. Vaughters commented that the selection process was not easy, stating that the team had "15 or 18 riders capable of riding the Tour." While Navardauskas was in his neo-pro season in 2011, consequently making this his first Grand Tour, Danielson was a ten-year veteran who had often in his career been tapped as the next great overall classification rider to come out of the United States.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
He had ridden the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España several times in his career, with three top-ten finishes in the Vuelta, but this marked his first Tour de France. The other riders on the squad were Dean, Farrar, Hesjedal, Hushovd, Millar, Vande Velde, and Zabriskie, with Hesjedal and Vande Velde considered the overall classification hopefuls. The team also revealed a new jersey design for the Tour, predominantly white rather than their predominantly black jersey from earlier in the year, and also reincorporating the argyle pattern that had featured in past year's kits.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
The Tour's first stage was largely flat, with a short uphill finish. Farrar said the finish was too hard for him and he would work for Hushovd on the stage, as he expected Hushovd to work for him on the more straightforward sprint stages. Hushovd was active in the frenzied finale on the Mont des Alouettes, but finished third six seconds back of Philippe Gilbert. Hesjedal, Vande Velde, and Danielson were all caught behind a crash about 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) from the finish line, and lost a minute and 20 seconds.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
The win earned Gilbert the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys, with the latter two falling to the shoulders of the respective next two men on the day. This had the odd result of the sprinter Hushovd wearing the mountains classification polka-dot jersey during the stage 2 team time trial. Vaughters commented that the squad was ready to "give hell" in the team time trial, ruing the time lost by Hesjedal, Vande Velde, and Danielson but chalking it up to nerves on the first day of a Grand Tour.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Garmin-Cervélo was ninth of 22 teams to take the course, taking the provisional best time by a margin of 12 second over previous leaders Rabobank. Later on, the top favorites for the stage Team Sky, HTC–Highroad, and Team RadioShack took the course and came close to knocking Garmin-Cervélo off, but fell short. When the BMC Racing Team clocked in four seconds off Garmin-Cervélo's time, it effectively sealed the win, as the last team on course, Gilbert's Omega Pharma–Lotto, were not realistic contenders.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
The stage win installed Hushovd and Millar into the top two places in the overall standings, tied on the same time, with Hushovd taking the yellow jersey on combined stage finishes. The team time trial was Garmin-Cervélo's first Tour stage win, in their fourth Tour. It was the second time Hushovd had been on a squad that won a Tour team time trial, the first having been in the 2001 Tour de France, when Vaughters was one of his teammates. His yellow jersey incorporated his world championship rainbow stripes. Vaughters was understandably thrilled with the victory, and hailed it as a major win for 'clean' cyclists.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Stage 3 the next day was one of those more straightforward flat stages. After the morning's breakaway was caught, some 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) from the finish, Garmin-Cervélo leadout riders hit the front but were quickly displaced by HTC–Highroad working for Mark Cavendish. However, they made errors negotiating a sharp left-hand turn at 750 meters (2,460 ft) to go, and Garmin-Cervélo was able to take first position again. Hushovd led out to 400 meters (1,300 ft) to, giving way to Dean who led out to 150 meters (490 ft), at which point Farrar began his sprint.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
With Cavendish losing position due to his teammates' flub earlier, Farrar was easily able to make it to the line first, taking his first career Tour stage win. After he crossed the line, Farrar made a W with the thumb and forefinger of both hands, in tribute to Weylandt – and lost his balance, nearly falling off his bicycle as a result. This victory matched him Millar earlier in the season at the Giro d'Italia in taking stage wins at all three Grand Tours for his career. Farrar praised his leadout train, particularly Hushovd. Farrar felt that as race leader and world champion, Hushovd was under no real obligation to ride leadout. Vaughters was pleased with the work turned in by Navardauskas, leading the chase of the breakaway and being part of the leadout.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Hushovd finished safely in the front group on the road in stage 4, a stage with a similar profile to the first in that was largely flat with an uphill finish, on the Mûr-de-Bretagne. This ride retained his race lead. Farrar missed out on the sprint finish to stage 5, being caught up by one of the day's many crashes. Hushovd was able to stay at the front of the race and take tenth in the sprint. Stage 6 had a rolling profile, suitable for classics riders like Hushovd.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
In a slightly reduced field sprint, that notably lacked Farrar and Cavendish, Hushovd took third behind countryman Edvald Boasson Hagen. Farrar again missed out on the finale to the flat seventh stage, being brought down in a big crash with other riders like Alexander Vinokourov, Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner. Hushovd took seventh in the sprint to safely retain the race lead for another day.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Hushovd defied pre-stage expectations in stage 8 at Super Besse. He marked Cadel Evans, who started the day a single second behind him in second place overall, but was unable to follow the Australian's accelerations 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) from the summit at the finish of the stage, as their 22-man group came to the line behind solo stage winner Rui Costa. Hushovd managed to maintain contact with the group for 16th on the day, retaining the yellow jersey again.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Hushovd at last lost the yellow jersey in stage 9, when the peloton finished four minutes behind a breakaway that included Thomas Voeckler, who became the new race leader. It was a bad day for the team on another front as well, as Zabriskie was caught in a major crash that forced him, and several other riders, to retire from the race. He was later found to have sustained a broken wrist. Farrar narrowly missed a second stage win in stage 11, when he took third behind Cavendish and André Greipel.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
In the Tour's first summit finish, at Luz Ardiden in stage 12, Danielson entered the top ten with an 11th place ride on the day. Taking time out of the majority of the field, including some riders who started the day ahead of him, installed Danielson into ninth place overall. Stage 13 was another mountain stage, which incorporated the hors catégorie climb Col d'Aubisque. With the stage's profile suggesting the winner would likely come from the morning breakaway, dozens of riders tried to escape.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Ten eventually did, including Hushovd, Jérémy Roy, and David Moncoutié, who were the last three to stay at the front of the race. Roy crested the Aubisque first, with Moncoutié and Hushovd trailing behind. They caught and surpassed him in the brief flat section that followed the climb. Hushovd eventually shod Moncoutié as well and took the stage win solo. Post-race analysis called the stage win a "miracle."


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Four days later came stage 16, a medium mountain stage incorporating the second-category Col de Manse. With a stage even more inviting for a breakaway, it took a very long time before one took shape. More than 100 kilometers (62 mi) were covered before Hushovd and Hesjedal, as well as eight others including Roy and Boasson Hagen, broke free. As only 60 kilometers (37 mi) remained when the group broke free, there was no real chase mounted. The race came apart on the Col de Manse, both in the breakaway and back in the peloton.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Hushovd, Hesjedal, and Boasson Hagen claimed first position on the road over the remains of the breakaway. With Hesjedal driving them to the line and effectively leading Hushovd out, the world champion claimed his second stage win of the Tour. In the peloton, Danielson lost time to several other riders on the descent, though he remained ninth overall. Thanks to Hesjedal and Hushovd finishing at the front of the race, Garmin-Cervélo took the lead in the teams classification with the day's results as well.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
Danielson lost a minute in the overall classification in stage 18, ending at the Col du Galibier, but remained ninth overall, with time gaps above and below him making it unlikely he would gain or lose any positions as the race went forward. He lost more time in the stage 20 individual time trial, but not his overall placement. That position held on the Tour's final stage the next day. Farrar was fourth in the final sprint, behind Cavendish, Boasson Hagen, and Greipel. The squad finished as winners of the teams classification.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Tour de France
When going up to the podium to accept the award, the eight remaining riders and Vaughters brought with them a cardboard cutout of Zabriskie, the only team member who had to leave the race. Danielson's ninth-place finish extended the team's streak of placing a rider in the top ten each year they participated in the Tour.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
After taking some time to recover from the Giro d'Italia, Le Mével was again the squad leader for the Vuelta a España. Martin, coming off his Giro della Toscana win, was also named as an overall classification rider. The team's sprint hopes were tied to Haussler, riding his first Grand Tour since the 2009 Tour de France. The squad had a notable exclusion in Hushovd.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
The world champion had already signed to ride for the BMC Racing Team in 2012, but made it clear that he wished to ride the Vuelta as part of his world championships preparation, something he had done in 2010 when he won the championship. Vaughters denied that Hushovd's transfer was the sole reason for his exclusion. He reiterated, as he had before the Tour de France, that the team had numerous riders capable and worthy of riding the Grand Tours. For the Vuelta, Vansummeren and Martin were named to the squad, after both may have seemed good choices but were not selected for the Tour de France squad. Martin drew mention as a pre-race overall contender.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
The squad's performance in the stage 1 team time trial was mediocre, as they finished with six riders in ninth place 25 seconds back of the winners Leopard Trek. Farrar took fourth the next day in a slight uphill sprint to Playas de Orihuela. Haussler was unable to finish at the front of the race, coming in a minute back. Martin took his first high placing in stage 4. He led the group of overall contenders home for third place on the day behind solo stage winner Daniel Moreno, on Sierra Nevada.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
Moreno and Chris Anker Sørensen had broken away 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) from the summit, with the overall contenders essentially content to let them go. The team missed out on the sprint finish to stage 7. Just as Farrar hit the front to begin his sprint, he touched wheels and crashed with Vacansoleil–DCM's Michał Gołaś. The team stuck by him, as all members besides Martin and Le Mével finished at the back of the peloton. Farrar started the next day, but did not complete the stage. Martin took a strong placing on this stage, which ended on a very step climb at San Lorenzo de El Escorial. He finished ninth, 15 seconds back of Joaquim Rodríguez.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
Stage 9 had another summit finish, at La Covatilla. Team Katusha, working for race leader Rodríguez, brought back the morning's breakaway with a little under 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) to race. After the first counter-attack was neutralized and brought back, Martin and his cousin Nicolas Roche from Ag2r–La Mondiale were the next ones to ride free of the peloton. Roche could not keep the pace for long, but defending Vuelta champion Vincenzo Nibali and soon-to-be race leader Bauke Mollema made the bridge up to Martin, in turn.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
Martin proved to be the strongest of them all, claiming his first career Grand Tour stage win. Martin had a poor individual time trial the next day, finishing six minutes slower than stage winner Tony Martin and falling to 24th place. The squad was mostly quiet for the remainder of the race. Martin took a strong fourth place on Peña Cabarga in stage 17, finishing 24 seconds back of the eventual top two men in the Vuelta. This moved him up to 14th overall.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España
Vanmarcke took fourth place in a field sprint in stage 20, one which featured about half the peloton. Martin's final overall placing was 13th. Le Mével, for his part, never featured in the race, finishing 40th overall. Seven Garmin-Cervélo riders completed the race, the exceptions being Farrar and Fischer, the latter of whom left the race before stage 9.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
On January 24, the day after the Tour Down Under ended, Garmin–Cervélo dismissed Matt White, an Australian former cyclist who had been a sporting director for them since 2008. White was the team's director at the Tour Down Under. This was announced one week after the long-rumored formation of a new top-level Australian team, known under the name GreenEDGE, was confirmed for 2012. White, as well as riders Cameron Meyer and Jack Bobridge, had been speculated to be bound for the new team, since the contracts of all three expire at the end of 2011.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
Vaughters denied that this link was the case, and the team's official announcement gave a different reason for White's firing. Officially, White was released for referring former team rider Trent Lowe to a Spanish doctor named Luis Garcia del Moral, who has been implicated in several doping cases. This referral took place in April 2009.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
Garcia del Moral had been the team doctor for the U.S. Postal Service team for the first five of Lance Armstrong's consecutive Tour de France victories, a period during which Floyd Landis claims he witnessed and participated in organized doping with the team, and was otherwise involved in some suspect activities during that time. However, Garcia del Moral's checkered past may not have figured into White's firing – the team stated that White had violated an important internal rule simply by sending Lowe to a doctor outside the team's employ or without approval of the medical staff.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
Complicating the story were reports that Lowe had blackmailed the team's management with publicly revealing the fact that he had been sent to see Garcia del Moral, demanding the unpaid portion from his 2010 contract (which was withheld due to Lowe riding with the equipment for his presumed 2011 team, Pegasus, while still under contract to Garmin). Lowe's lawyer later refuted the blackmail claims, but Lowe bringing up the matter is the reason, per Vaughters, why White was fired for an incident which took place nearly two years prior.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
The firing was done by mandate of the Slipstream Sports board of directors, which consists of Vaughters, team owner Doug Ellis, and team president Matt Johnson. Vaughters flew to Adelaide to personally dismiss White after he had not been present at the Tour Down Under. He also informed the Tour Down Under squad, while the team's other riders were informed via a conference call to the team's training camp in Girona. Riders reacted with shock, since White had been an integral part in the team rising from a US-based team with limited presence in Europe to be one of the biggest in the world.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
White, for his part, took the decision stride, saying that, with Cervélo as a new corporate sponsor and several new riders on the team from the defunct Cervélo TestTeam, the team's focus and direction for 2011 was different from in prior years. White felt his energies could be better spent elsewhere. White had the week prior been appointed as Cycling Australia's professional men's road coordinator. Cycling Australia conducted their own investigation into the reasons behind White's firing, and kept him on in the position.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
White's immediate successor was Vaughters himself. Shortly afterward, the team hired Peter Van Petegem as classics advisor, with a short-term contract running from the beginning of March until Paris–Roubaix on April 10. The timing of the contract was to avoid an appearance of impropriety due to Van Petegem's role with the organizers of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and his own full-time job as an insurance broker. Van Petegem had, in his cycling career, won both Paris–Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.


2011 Garmin–Cervélo season, Away from competition, Dismissal of Matt White
He also served as a consultant with the Astana team in 2010 helping Alberto Contador learn to ride the cobbles that figured into stage 4 of the 2010 Tour de France. This relationship had proved fruitful as Contador gained time on most of his rivals in that cobbled stage en route to winning the Tour de France; analysis had credited Van Petegem for Contador's success. With Van Petegem in the team car, Garmin-Cervélo won Paris–Roubaix with Johan Vansummeren. A week after Paris–Roubaix, the team hired Eric Van Lancker to a position somewhat in between White's and Van Petegem's in that he was not a short-term hire, but he was also not thought to be White's permanent replacement.


2011 Gastein Ladies
The 2011 Gastein Ladies was a professional women's tennis tournament played on  outdoor clay courts. It was the fifth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2011 WTA Tour. It took place in Bad Gastein, Austria between 11 and 18 July 2011. María José Martínez Sánchez won the singles title.


2011 Gastein Ladies, WTA entrants, Other Entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2011 Gastein Ladies, Finals, Doubles
Eva Birnerová /  Lucie Hradecká defeated  Jarmila Gajdošová /  Julia Görges, 4–6, 6–2, [12–10]


2011 Gastein Ladies – Doubles
Lucie Hradecká and Anabel Medina Garrigues were the defending champions, but Garrigues chose to participate in the 2011 Internazionali Femminili di Palermo.


2011 Gastein Ladies – Doubles
Hradecká has partnered up with Eva Birnerová and won the tournament, beating Jarmila Gajdošová and Julia Görges in the final, 4–6, 6–2, [12–10]. This was the fifth straight time that Hradecká won the event in doubles, having won every time since the event's creation in 2007.


2011 Gastein Ladies – Singles
Julia Görges was the defending champion, but lost to Laura Pous Tió in the first round.


2011 Gastein Ladies – Singles
María José Martínez Sánchez won the tournament beating home player Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in the final, 6–0, 7–5.


2011 Gastein Ladies – Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw of the 2011 Gastein Ladies.


2011 Gator Bowl
The 2011 Gator Bowl game was a post-season college football bowl game between the Michigan Wolverines of the Big Ten and Mississippi State Bulldogs of the SEC, and was played on January 1, 2011 (1:30 p.m. ET), at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the 66th edition of the bowl game and was broadcast by ESPN2. It was the first time these two teams have ever met. After the game started fairly close, Mississippi State ultimately pulled away and routed Michigan 52–14.


2011 Gator Bowl
It was the most points ever scored by one team in the Gator Bowl, and the worst loss Michigan has ever suffered in any bowl game in its long history. Rich Rodriguez was fired by Michigan after the game, marking the beginning of the "Brady Hoke Era," as Hoke would be named Rodriguez's replacement as Michigan head coach.


2011 Gator Bowl
Konica Minolta ended its sponsorship after the 2010 Gator Bowl game. On December 14, 2010, the Gator Bowl Association announced that Progressive Insurance would become the title sponsor for the 2011 Gator Bowl.


2011 Gator Bowl, Teams, Mississippi State
Mississippi State, like their opponent, returned to a bowl game for the first time since following the 2007 season. The Bulldogs brought the nation's 16th ranked rushing offense to the contest.


2011 Gator Bowl, Teams, Michigan
Michigan brought its high-powered offense into the Gator Bowl along with its 7–5 record. The Wolverines were led by quarterback Denard Robinson. The sophomore helped guide an offense that ranked sixth in the FBS with an average of 500.9 yards, and he set the NCAA record for most rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,643. Robinson was named the Big Ten's Offensive MVP for his efforts. Michigan returned to a bowl game after not appearing in the postseason in 2008 and 2009. This was the Wolverines' third appearance in the Gator Bowl and first since 1991. They were 1–1 in prior Gator Bowls.


2011 Gator Bowl, Game summary
The game began as a seesaw affair between the two teams. Michigan struck first with Denard Robinson throwing a 10-yard pass to Roy Roundtree for a touchdown on the game's first drive. Mississippi State responded with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Chris Relf to Arceto Clark and a 42-yard field goal by Derek DePasquale. The field goal was the direct result of a blocked punt by Mississippi State. Michigan responded with a 27-yard touchdown reception by Martavious Odoms. After the first quarter ended, Michigan lead 14–10, but would not score any more points during the game.


2011 Gator Bowl, Game summary
Mississippi State blew the game wide open in the second quarter with twenty-one points. Vick Ballard and Chris Relf both had rushing touchdowns, of two yards and one yard respectively, while Ricco Sanders also had a 15-yard touchdown reception for Mississippi State. By halftime, Mississippi State led 31–14 and showed no signs of slowing down. On the opening drive of the third quarter, Michigan's defense finally forced its first three and out, but on the subsequent drive, Brendan Gibbons missed a 35-yard field goal. The Bulldogs finished the game with twenty-one second half points. Fourteen of these came in the third quarter on two rushing touchdowns by Ballard of seven yards and one yard, while the final touchdown that made the score worse than the 1968 Ohio State-Michigan game came via a Relf 31-yard pass to Michael Carr in the fourth quarter.


2011 Gator Bowl, Game summary
The game broke several Gator Bowl records, as well as Michigan records. The twenty-four points scored in the first quarter broke the previous Gator Bowl record for most points in the first quarter, which was set in 2005 between West Virginia and Florida State. Denard Robinson finished the season with 4,272 yards of total offense, a Michigan single-season record. The game was also Michigan's worst loss in Michigan's history in a bowl game, with the previous record being a 45–17 loss to Tennessee in the 2002 Citrus Bowl. This was also Michigan's worst loss since losing 40-0 to Minnesota in 1935.


2011 Gatorade Duels
The 2011 Gatorade Duels were a pair of stock car races held on February 17, 2011 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The 62 and 60-lap races, held before a crowd of 80,000 people, were the qualifying events for the 2011 Daytona 500, the premier event of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The first race was won by Kurt Busch for the Penske Racing team. Regan Smith finished second, and Kevin Harvick came in third. Afterward, the second race was won by Jeff Burton. Clint Bowyer followed in the second position, ahead of third-placed Michael Waltrip.


2011 Gatorade Duels
During the first race, Ryan Newman was the leader at the start. However, by the end of the lap Paul Menard became the leader. Afterward, the first caution was given after Newman spun sideways. On the 11th lap, Harvick moved to the first position. Twenty laps later, Busch became the leader. With four laps remaining, Michael McDowell's engine failed, prompting the second caution to be given. At the restart, Matt Kenseth was the leader, but he was passed by Busch one lap later. Busch remained in the first position to win the first Gatorade Duel. There were two cautions and 20 lead changes among nine drivers during the first race.


2011 Gatorade Duels
During the second race, Jeff Gordon was the leader at the start, but after one lap he was passed by Bowyer. On the third lap, Casey Mears' engine failed, prompting the first caution of the race to be given. After the restart, Kyle Busch became the leader. On lap 13, Edwards passed Busch to move into the first position. On the 15th lap, the second caution of the race was given, after Joey Logano collided into the wall. At the restart, Edwards remained the leader, ahead of Kyle Busch. At the end of the race, Burton had assistance from Bowyer to win the race. There were a record-breaking 22 lead changes among seven drivers and five caution periods in the second event. The races attracted 3.303 million television viewers.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Background
Daytona International Speedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races; the others are Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. Its standard track is a four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.0 km) superspeedway. Daytona's turns are banked at 31 degrees and the front stretch (the location of the finish line) is banked at 18 degrees. The defending winners of the races were Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Background
In the early years, qualifying for the Daytona 500 had varying formats: from one timed lap, to the average of two laps, to the better of two laps. The idea of having two individual races to establish the starting lineup of the Daytona 500 dates back to the first race in 1959. The first of the 100-mile (160 km) qualifying races consisted of Convertible division cars and the second of Grand National cars. Between 1960 and 1967, the races were 100 miles (160 km) and were increased to 125 miles (201 km) in 1969.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Background
Prior to 1971, the races yielded points to the Drivers' Championship. Large well-established teams approach the races as practice sessions for the Daytona 500 while a successful qualification into the Daytona 500 for smaller less-established teams would allow them to enter future NASCAR events during the season. An unsuccessful qualification meant the team would risk closing down until sponsorship was found. Corporate sponsors purchased naming rights to qualifying races; between 1981 and 1984, Uno cards was the title sponsor for the "Uno Twin 125’s" qualifying events.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Background
In 1985 they became known as "7-Eleven Twin 125's"; no sponsors funded the 1988, 1989 and 1990 qualifying events and the races were called "Daytona Twin Qualifiers". Gatorade became the sponsor of the dual qualifying events in 1991 and the races were increased to 150 miles (240 km) as it became known as the "Gatorade Duels" in 2005. The races were rebranded as the "Budweiser Duels" in 2013 and became known as the "Can-Am Duels" in 2016.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Background
The top 35 drivers were assigned to Gatorade Duel races based upon their qualifying positions in the previous year's Daytona 500. Drivers who qualified in odd-number positions competed in the first Duel along with the winner of the 2011 Daytona 500 pole. Competitors who qualified in even-numbered places took part in the second Duel. The drivers' finishing positions in both Duels determined their starting positions in the Daytona 500. Positions 40 to 42 were filled with the quickest drivers who did not qualify in the top 35. 43rd place was occupied by an eligible past champion. In the event a past champion was not available, the 43rd position would be filled by the next-fastest driver. Two drivers outside the top 35 qualifying positions were eligible for two transfer spots in each Duel which allowed them to qualify for the Daytona 500.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held prior to the races on February 16, 2011. The first practice session ran for 90 minutes, while the second lasted 55 minutes after rain delays. In the first practice session, which was delayed because of rain, Kyle Busch was quickest with a time of 44.943 seconds. He was followed by Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, and Juan Pablo Montoya in the next four positions. Also in the session, Earnhardt, along with Martin Truex Jr., collided together, and into the wall.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Practice and qualifying
Both sustained major damages to their car, which prompted them to move to back-up cars, meaning Earnhardt had to forfeit the pole position for the race and in the Daytona 500. During the second practice, Kahne was quickest with a time of 44.985 seconds, only one-thousandth of a second faster than Joey Logano. Jeff Gordon followed in the third position, ahead of David Ragan and Kyle Busch.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Practice and qualifying
The qualifying grids were chosen by how they qualified in Daytona 500 pole position qualifying, giving the pole position to Earnhardt in the first race. He was joined on the grid's front row by Paul Menard, with Ryan Newman in third. Mark Martin and Tony Stewart started in fourth and fifth positions. Gordon started from first place in the second event and was joined by Trevor Bayne in second place with Clint Bowyer third. Jeff Burton started fourth, and was followed by Biffle in fifth.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Races
The qualifying races for the 2011 Daytona 500 began at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and were televised live in the United States on Speed. The conditions on the grid were dry before the race, the air temperature at 70 °F (21 °C) with sunny skies expected. Sonny Gallman began pre-race ceremonies, by delivering the invocation. Next, Johnny Mayo performed the national anthem.


2011 Gatorade Duels, Races, Race 1
Following the invocation and the performance of the United States National Anthem, the children of the late sports marketer Ed Shull gave the command for drivers to start their engines. On the pace laps, Johnson, after changing his engine, and teammate Earnhardt, who had to move to a back-up car, had to fall behind all the other drivers in the event after doing major changes during practice. At the start, Newman was the leader going through the first corner, but on the same lap Menard, with pushing assistance from Martin, passed him. On the second lap, the first caution was given because Newman spun sideways in the second turn but avoided impacting the wall. During the caution, he drove to pit road for a pit stop.