2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, International response, North America
On 2 June, Canada brought in stricter anti E. coli-related food inspections, and by 3 June the Public Health Agency of Canada said no Canadians had been reported sick with the strain as of that date. The Canadian government also brought in heavier import and hygiene restrictions on EU cucumbers, lettuces, and tomatoes.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, International response, North America
The United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that emerging strains of E. coli are a significant problem, but regulatory bodies in the US have concentrated on the more infamous E. coli O157 serotype.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, International response, North America
The FDA noted nearly all of America's fresh produce is grown in the US and areas of Central America, and the EU has not been a significant source of fresh produce for the US.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, International response, Other countries
Other countries, including Nigeria, Hong Kong, and Thailand, expressed concern regarding imported produce.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
By 1 June, Italian, Austrian, and French cucumber sales had begun to decline sharply, but the Austrian Health Ministry official, Dr. Pamela Rendi-Wagner, claimed Austrian customers were still safe.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
On 3 June, the governments of Spain, Portugal, and Germany said they would formally request EU agricultural aid for farmers affected by the outbreak. That day, Russia also set up plans for new imports of cucumbers from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Turkey.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
By 7 June, the EU's farmers had reported they had lost millions of dollars in exports during the outbreak, with Fepex, Spain's fruit and vegetable industry group, saying its growers had $256,000,000 in turnover. French, Swiss, Bulgarian, German, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese producers have also been similarly affected.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
That day, the EU proposed issuing £135,000,000 in agricultural compensation to its farmers. The EU agriculture commissioner said the EU's farmers could get back up to 30% of the cost of vegetables they were unable to sell. The EU's health commissioner, John Dalli, had formally criticised Germany earlier that day for rushing out "premature conclusions" about the source of an outbreak, and only helped to spread alarm among the public and farmers and untimely leading to the damaging the EU's agriculture sector. John Dalli also told the EU parliament in Strasbourg that claims had to be scientifically sound, unbiased, and fool-proof in nature before it was publicised in future.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
Spain then rejected a €150,000,000/£135,000,000 the European Commission's compensation deal for their farmers who were hit by the E. coli outbreak, on 8 June, saying it was too small. France, European Union's largest agricultural grower, said it would support the plan to compensate producers hurt by the outbreak, according to the French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
Ministers from both EU and Russia were scheduled to meet on 8 June over Russia's earlier decision to ban all its vegetable imports from the EU.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
On 8 June, the EU's  E. coli O104:H4 outbreak was estimated to have cost $2,840,000,000 in human losses (such as sick leave), regardless of material losses (such as dumped cucumbers).


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Economics
Consumers across Europe were shunning fruit and vegetables en masse by 8 June, as the German government's edict against eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and sprouts remained on. EU farmers claimed to have losses up to C$417,000,000 a week as ripe vegetables rotted in their fields and warehouses. On 8 June, The EU Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said the EU had increased its offer of compensation to farmers for the losses caused by E. coli outbreak to C$210,000,000.


2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, Cause
The outbreak was caused by a strain of E. coli of the serotype O104:H4, that was unusual for having characteristics of both enteroaggregative E. coli and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. The strain has a number of virulence genes typical of enteroaggregative E. coli, including attA, aggR, aap, aggA, and aggC, in addition to the Shiga toxin variant 2. All bacteria isolated from patients in this outbreak were resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics, third-generation cephalosporins, and partially resistant to nalidixic acid, but susceptible to carbapenems and ciprofloxacin.


2011 Gerry Weber Open
The 2011 Gerry Weber Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 19th edition of the event known that year as the Gerry Weber Open and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the 2011 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Gerry Weber Stadion in Halle, Germany, between 6 and 12 June 2011.


2011 Gerry Weber Open, Champions, Doubles
Rohan Bopanna /  Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi defeated  Robin Haase /  Milos Raonic, 7–6(10–8), 3–6, [11–9]


2011 Gerry Weber Open, Entries, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2011 Gerry Weber Open – Doubles
Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny were the defending champions, but chose not to compete due to Youzhny's injured left foot. The first seeded Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi defeated the unseeded pair Robin Haase and Milos Raonic with a score of 7–6(10–8), 3–6, [11–9].


2011 Gerry Weber Open – Singles
Lleyton Hewitt was the defending champion, but lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarterfinals. Kohlschreiber won the tournament, defeating Philipp Petzschner in an all-German final, the first in the tournament's history, after Petzschner retired in the second set at a score of 7–6, 2–0.


2011 Gerry Weber Open – Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw of the 2011 Gerry Weber Open.


2011 Geylang United FC season
The 2011 S.League season is Geylang United's 16th season in the top flight of Singapore football and 36th year in existence as a football club. The club will also competed in the Singapore Cup and the Singapore League Cup.


2011 Ghana Movie Awards
The 2011 Ghana Movie Awards was the second edition of the ceremony to reward film practitioners in the Ghana Film Industry. The event was held at Accra International Conference center on 25 December 2011. Winners included Kimberly Elise, Majid Michel, Somewhere in Africa. Ties That Bind had 21 nominations and eventually won 9 awards to top the winners list. Olu Jacobs received the Lifetime Achievement Award.


2011 Gibraltar general election
General elections were held in Gibraltar on 8 December 2011.


2011 Gibraltar general election
Two parties, the Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) and the Progressive Democrative Party (PDP) and an alliance of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP) and the Liberal Party of Gibraltar (LPG) each presented a full slate of ten candidates each, making a total of thirty candidates standing for seventeen seats in the Gibraltar Parliament. Members of Parliament in Gibraltar are elected "at-large" in a single electoral area covering the whole territory.


2011 Gibraltar general election
Several pre-election polls gave the GSLP an advantage of up to 9% over the governing party, the GSD, while one (that of the Spanish newspaper Area, which published no details and was widely thought to be politically motivated) predicted a GSD win.


2011 Gibraltar general election, Parties
Two parties, the Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), and an alliance (Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP)/Liberals) have presented a full slate of 10 candidates each, making a total of 30 candidates for 17 seats in the Gibraltar Parliament.


2011 Gibraltar general election, Polls
Several pre-election polls gave the GSLP an advantage of up to 9% over the governing party, the GSD, while one (that of Spanish paper Area, which published no details and was thought to be politically motivated) predicted a GSD win.


2011 Ginetta GT Supercup
The 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup season will be the inaugural Ginetta GT Supercup season, having rebranded from the Ginetta G50 Cup, which ran between 2008 and 2010. The season will begin at Brands Hatch on 4 April and will finish after 27 races over 10 rounds at Sliverstone on 16 October, supporting all rounds of the British Touring Car Championship.


2011 Ginetta GT Supercup
The season sees a new direction for the series with a move towards a GT style class structure with two cars eligible to race in the championship. The older Ginetta G50 is still eligible to race along with the introduction of the new Ginetta G55 with 370 bhp (280 kW), 70 more than the G50.


2011 Ginetta GT Supercup
The winner of the G55 Championship will win a fully paid drive in a Next Generation Touring Car in the 2012 British Touring Car Championship.


2011 Ginetta GT Supercup, Race calendar and results
All races were held in the United Kingdom. The series lasted for 27 races over 10 rounds and supported the British Touring Car Championship at all rounds.


2011 Ginetta GT Supercup, Ginetta GT Winter Cup
The Ginetta GT Winter Cup was planned as to be the inaugural Ginetta GT Winter Cup. The series was set to feature two 2-hour endurance races, incorporating Ginetta G40, G50 and G55 models, however the championship was shelved.|}


2011 Ginetta Junior Championship
The 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship season was the ninth season of the Ginetta Junior Championship series for junior drivers aged 14 to 17. The series was based in the United Kingdom and gives aspiring racing drivers aged between 14 and 17 the chance to take their first steps up the motor racing ladder.


2011 Ginetta Junior Championship
The 2011 season commenced on 3 April 2011 at Brands Hatch and concluded on 16 October 2011 at Silverstone, after twenty races to be held at ten meetings in support of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship.


2011 Ginetta Junior Championship, Race calendar and results
All rounds were held in the United Kingdom. The series supported the British Touring Car Championship at all rounds.


2011 Girabola
The 2011 Girabola was the 33rd season of top-tier football in Angola. The season ran from 12 March to 6 November 2011. Interclube were the defending champions, having won their 2nd Angolan championship in 2010.


2011 Girabola
The league comprises 16 teams, the bottom three of which will be relegated to the 2012 Gira Angola.


2011 Girabola
Recreativo Libolo were crowned champions, while FC Cabinda, Primeiro de Maio and Académica Lobito were relegated. Love Cabungula of Petro Luanda finished as top scorer with 20 goals.


2011 Girabola
Angola was informed by CAF that it will have only 2 teams (one team in each competition) competing in the 2012 CAF club competitions, according to the latest CAF 5-Year Ranking. The Girabola champion will play in the 2012 CAF Champions League.


2011 Girabola, Teams
C.D. Huíla, SC Petróleos de Cabinda, and Sport Lubango e Benfica were directly relegated to the Gira Angola after finishing 12th, 13th and 14th respectively in the previous year's standings. They are replaced by First Division Série A champions Progresso, Série B champions Primeiro de Maio, and Académica Lobito, winners of the promotion play-off between Série A and B runners-up.


2011 Girabola, Changes from 2010 season
Relegated: Desportivo da Huíla, Sporting de Cabinda, Benfica do Lubango Promoted: Académica do Lobito, Primeiro de Maio, Progresso do Sambizanga


2011 Giravanz Kitakyushu season, Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships
The 2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championship was the 6th edition of the Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championship. The tournament was held from 12 to 17 July 2011 in Utrecht, Netherlands at the De Klapperboom.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships
Netherlands won the tournament for the fourth time after defeating Germany 4–1 in the final.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Format
The eight teams were split into two groups of four teams. The top two teams advanced to the semifinals to determine the winner in a knockout system. The bottom two teams played in a new group with the teams they did not play against in the group stage. The bottom two teams were relegated to the EuroHockey Youth Championship II.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Qualified teams
The following teams participated in the 2011 EuroHockey Youth Championship:


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Officials
The following umpires were appointed by the EHF and FIH to officiate the tournament:


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Results, Classification round, Fifth to eighth place classification
Points from the preliminary round were carried over to Pool C to determine group standings.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Awards
The following awards were presented at the conclusion of the tournament:


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Statistics, Final standings
As per statistical convention in field hockey, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.


2011 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships, Statistics, Goalscorers
There were 92 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 4.6 goals per match.


2011 Girls' U16 South American Volleyball Championship
The 2011 Girls' U16 South American Volleyball Championship was the 1st edition of the tournament, organised by South America's governing volleyball body, the Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol (CSV). It was held in Canelones, Uruguay from November 21 to 26, 2011.


2011 Girls' U16 South American Volleyball Championship, Competition System
All matches in the preliminary round and the semifinals are played best out of three sets, the third place match and the Gold Medal match are played best out of 5 as normal senior tournaments.


2011 Girls' U16 South American Volleyball Championship, Competition System
The competition system for the First Girls' U16 South American Championship consist of two rounds, the first round was a Round-Robin system. Each team plays once against each of the 7 remaining teams with each team playing two matches in a day against different teams.


2011 Girls' U16 South American Volleyball Championship, Competition System
According to the final ranking in the first round, the best four teams will play in the semifinals (1º VS 4º and 2º VS 3º), the winners will play for the Gold Medal while the losers will play for the Bronze Medal.


2011 Girls' Youth Pan-American Volleyball Cup
The 2011 Girls' Youth Pan-American Volleyball Cup was the first edition of the annual Women's Volleyball Tournament, played by eight countries from July 1–9, 2011 in Tijuana, Mexico.


2011 Giro d'Italia
The 2011 Giro d'Italia was the 94th Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race started on 7 May with a team time trial in Turin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, when the city served as the first capital of the single state.


2011 Giro d'Italia
The route was one of the most difficult in the modern history of the race, with substantial criticism that it was simply too hard for a three-week-long race. Of the seven stages categorized as 'high mountain', six had summit arrivals, highlighted by the three stages before the second rest day ending at Grossglockner in Austria, the exceptionally steep Monte Zoncolan, and a tall and steep peak near the Fascia Valley in Gardeccia. There was also, for the fifth consecutive Giro, a climbing time trial, this one to the Nevegal. Of the race's 18 mass-start stages, only three ended with the majority of the field together at the front of the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia
In the third stage, Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt crashed coming down the Passo del Bocco, near the town of Mezzanego, suffering catastrophic injury. Despite substantial resuscitation efforts, he was established to have died on the spot. The fourth stage was not competitively raced; instead, it was run as a cycling procession. On the second rest day, Xavier Tondó, a member of Movistar Team, was killed in an accident at his home. Although he was not a participant, his death caused his teammates and other members of the peloton to pay tribute to him in the subsequent stages.


2011 Giro d'Italia
Strong overall favorite Alberto Contador was the race's original winner, in what constituted his second Giro championship. His winning margin ahead of second-placed Michele Scarponi was over six minutes. He also won the points competition as the most consistent high finisher, also with a substantial lead over Scarponi in second place, and Vincenzo Nibali completed the podium. In the other sub-classifications, Stefano Garzelli won the mountains competition and Roman Kreuziger finished as the best rider aged 25 or under in the general classification; he finished the race fifth overall.


2011 Giro d'Italia
In February 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided that Contador, following his positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, lost his results since that event. He was therefore stripped of the 2011 Giro title, and Scarponi became the new victor of the race, and the winner of the points classification.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Teams
All 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to attend. Two UCI Professional Continental teams were announced well ahead of time, Androni Giocattoli and Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli. UCI rules normally limit races to a peloton of 200 riders, but the Giro received special dispensation for a 207-rider peloton, allowing a 23rd team. The three additional invited teams were Acqua & Sapone, Colnago–CSF Inox, and Geox–TMC. Despite talk that ProTeam Vacansoleil–DCM might be excluded due to the doping scandals involving team members Riccardo Riccò and Ezequiel Mosquera, they were included pursuant to UCI rules.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
While the Giro had in its peloton many notable riders, including six former Grand Tour winners, the odds-on favorite was always Saxo Bank–SunGard's Alberto Contador. The 2008 Giro champion, who had likewise won the 2008 Vuelta a España and three editions of the Tour de France, announced in April 2010 that he would contest the Giro in 2011.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
Though his status was put in doubt after a positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, he was cleared by his national federation in February 2011 and able to return to racing, though the case still pended a final appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport later in 2011. Contador was the overwhelming favorite for overall victory. Reigning Giro champion Ivan Basso chose not to return, preferring to focus on the Tour de France later in the season.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
He briefly considered riding as a domestique for Vincenzo Nibali, but opted against it because of his physical condition at the time and the feeling that doing so would be disrespectful to the race. The 2011 Giro was thus the third successive edition, and fourth in the last five, in which the reigning champion did not return to defend his championship.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
The other five former Grand Tour winners in the field were Stefano Garzelli, Danilo Di Luca, Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre, and Vincenzo Nibali. Of the five, only Menchov and Nibali were considered realistic overall contenders. Other riders named as contenders included Roman Kreuziger, riding as the leader of the Astana team and a protected rider in a Grand Tour for the first time in his career, 2010 Giro d'Italia runner-up David Arroyo, Lampre–ISD captain and 2010 Giro fourth-place finisher Michele Scarponi, and Joaquim Rodríguez.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
Riders further noted as darkhorses included Sastre, Contador's teammate and main support rider Richie Porte, Di Luca, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Igor Antón, Garzelli, Domenico Pozzovivo, Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti, and Team RadioShack's dual leaders Tiago Machado and Yaroslav Popovych. Visconti was given the irregular race number of 150, wearing it as the Italian national champion to commemorate 150 years of Italian unification. While squads are normally given numbers from the same group of ten, such as 151 through 159, numbers ending in zero are seldom issued. Visconti's Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli squad wore numbers 150 through 158.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
The ongoing Mantova doping investigation, involving members of the Lampre–NGC team, as it was known in 2009, had an effect on the race. It greatly affected the Lampre–ISD team itself, as their manager Giuseppe Saronni was implicated in the investigation and stepped down as team manager shortly before the Giro began. He was replaced by former Omega Pharma–Lotto sporting director Roberto Damiani. Their contingent for the Giro specifically excluded any riders or staff implicated in the investigation. The foremost of these riders was former Giro winner Damiano Cunego, though Damiani felt he would eventually be cleared of any wrongdoing.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
While the BMC Racing Team was unlikely to field an overall favorite, given that their top man Cadel Evans chose to focus on the Tour de France, they were also affected by the investigation, for the second year in a row. Just as they had before the 2010 Giro, the team suspended Alessandro Ballan and Mauro Santambrogio, members of the Lampre–NGC team in 2009 who were named in the investigation. As with 2010, the team reactivated the two riders after the Giro ended.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
The near total dearth of flat, sprinter-friendly stages did not stop sprinters Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar, and Alessandro Petacchi, from all taking the start. One sprinter who was expected to take part in the race, Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli's Andrea Guardini, was not part of the start list. Though his sporting director at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey had promised him a place in the Giro should he win two stages at that event (Guardini did indeed win two stages in Turkey), the team believed he would be better served continuing to take part in somewhat smaller races.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
Other sprinters in the Giro peloton mainly came from much smaller teams and teams with little overall ambition. Quick-Step and Team RadioShack sent two sprinters apiece—Gerald Ciolek and Francesco Chicchi for the Belgian team and Robbie Hunter and Robbie McEwen on the American squad. Giro debutants Vacansoleil–DCM had among their squad Slovenian sprinter Borut Božič. Movistar Team's sprinter was Francisco Ventoso, one of the season's most prolific winners to date. The small Androni Giocattoli and Colnago–CSF Inox also sent sprinters, Roberto Ferrari and 2010 Giro stage winner Manuel Belletti, respectively.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Pre-race favorites
The Leopard Trek team had intended to send Daniele Bennati, a former winner of the points classification in the Giro d'Italia who had had great success at the recently run Circuit de la Sarthe. After a crash at the Tour de Romandie where he sustained multiple fractures and a lung contusion, he was forced out of the Giro. That squad therefore turned their sprinting hopes to the rider originally set to be Bennati's leadout man, Belgian sprinter Wouter Weylandt.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
The route for the 2011 Giro was unveiled in Turin on 23 October 2010. It was immediately recognized as being quite difficult, featuring 40 categorized climbs among its 18 mass-start stages, seven of them summit finishes. Seventeen of the 20 regions of Italy were visited in the race, as the 2011 race commemorated the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
Attention was immediately drawn to the three stages preceding the second rest day, stages 13, 14, and 15, each of which featured summit finishes and multiple high-rated climbs, among them the Grossglockner, Monte Zoncolan, and the Passo Giau, this Giro's Cima Coppi, its tallest climb. The route as it was originally announced was 3,496 km (2,172 mi) in length, just 4 km (2.5 mi) shy of the maximum length allowed under UCI regulations.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
The first summit finish was the Montevergine di Mercogliano in Stage 7, whilst the first week was concluded on the slopes of Mount Etna, which the peloton was faced with twice in stage 9. The final major climb was the Colle delle Finestre, which made its return after last featuring in the 2005 Giro d'Italia. While there were five stages classified as flat, and Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi claimed he saw as many as seven potential sprint finishes, consensus was overwhelming that the majority of the route favored the strongest of the climbers at the expense of other riders.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
While the route did get some positive critiques, there was also critical opinion that it was simply too difficult. This was particularly in comparison with the similarly difficult, yet not as difficult, route for the 2011 Tour de France revealed days earlier. Team Sky sporting director Sean Yates called the route "brutal" and said that serious Tour de France contenders would not bother coming to the race since it was so difficult. This was seen as an early indication that his team's leader Bradley Wiggins would skip the Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
Additional critical analysis concurred that the route was excessively difficult, for its incredible amount of vertical climbing (409 km (254 mi) in the route as originally announced), number of summit finishes and long transfers, and the unpaved or 'white roads' which featured in stages 5 and 20. Race director Angelo Zomegnan balked at the criticisms, saying simply "It's a hard Giro but the Giro has to be hard."


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
Two stages in the second half of the Giro had their courses altered shortly before they were run. The more notable was stage 14, which had been hyped as the début of the Monte Crostis in the Giro d'Italia. Commissaires from the UCI mandated it be removed the night before stage 14 was run. The Crostis is not a well-maintained pass, and Giro officials had set out a detailed protocol whereby team cars would not follow the race up or down the mountain, and only motorbikes offering wheel changes would be present with the riders.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
Team managers expressed concern that they would not fully be able to fulfill their duties if not present with the riders like normal, and this was given as the basis of the UCI's decision. They held that Giro organizers had sufficiently ensured rider safety on the course, but the necessary protocols did not protect the sporting aspect of the race. Thus, the Crostis was eliminated, and the stage was reduced in length from its originally planned length of 210 km (130 mi).


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
The second-category Tualis climb was added to the route for the day to offset the loss of the Crostis. However, protests from spectators disappointed by the removal of the Crostis part of the route, including many who had volunteered for works to make parts of that road safe, led to the cancellation of the Tualis climb. The route was diverted while the stage was in progress to avoid a small village at the foot of the Tualis where protesters had gathered. Therefore, the length of the stage was shortened to 170 km (106 mi).


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
The Giro's last stage, an individual time trial in Milan, was also shortened. The course was shortened by 5.5 km (3.4 mi) four days before the stage took place, due to a special election taking place in Milan the same day as the stage. City officials expected high voter turnout and did not want the city center tied up by the race all day, so the revised route began at the outskirts of Milan instead of its center. It still ended, per its original design, at the Duomo di Milano.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Route and stages
In spite of first-hand criticism from riders following the race that the route was excessively difficult and dangerous, Zomegnan remained staunch in his defense of the route.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
The Giro began with a team time trial in the city that served as Italy's first federal capital, Turin. The HTC–Highroad squad won this stage, making their rider Marco Pinotti the first wearer of the race leader's pink jersey. That team's focus the next day was not to defend Pinotti's race lead, but to try to deliver their star sprinter Mark Cavendish to the victory, which would have the indirect effect of him overtaking Pinotti for the pink jersey.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Cavendish indeed became the new race leader, but after an awkward final sprint it was not he but Italian Alessandro Petacchi who won the day. David Millar then became the third race leader in as many days when he finished with a breakaway group that was 21 seconds the better of the main field in stage 3, though this result was overshadowed by the death of Wouter Weylandt earlier in the stage.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
The peloton chose not to run stage four competitively following Weylandt's death; instead the stage was ridden as a procession in his memory. The remaining members of his team Leopard Trek, as well as training partner Tyler Farrar from the Garmin–Cervélo squad, crossed the finish line first with their arms around one another before withdrawing from the race that evening. Stage 5 was held on the dirt roads of Tuscany, which had provided for one of the more spectacular stages in the 2010 Giro d'Italia. Dutch rider Pieter Weening won the stage with an 8-second time gap against the field. That, coupled with the 20-second time bonus for winning the day, gave him the pink jersey. There was some stability in the overall standings at this point, as the race's top riders finished together, or nearly so, in the next three stages.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Stage 9 was the first major mountain stage, featuring two ascents of Mount Etna, including a summit finish. It was on this day that strong overall favorite Alberto Contador first seized control of the race. Just after Androni Giocattoli's José Rujano attacked out of the leading group on the road on the way up to Etna for the last time, Contador did likewise. Rujano struggled mightily to hold Contador's wheel and no one else came close to reaching the pair.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Contador won the stage, his first Giro stage win despite having won the Italian Grand Tour in 2008, and immediately attained a minute's advantage in the overall classification. In his five previous Grand Tour wins, Contador had never lost the race lead after taking it, but he had also never taken it so early on in the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
As teams who have riders with a legitimate chance to win a race overall will generally try to avoid defending the lead for too many days, lest they tire their support riders out early and leave their leader vulnerable, there was speculation that Contador would tactically relinquish the jersey. The Spaniard himself hinted that such a move would be in his plans. This would be likeliest to happen in the heavily undulating stage 11. The breakaway group for this stage was hard-fought and late-forming, since someone from its number could potentially become the new race leader.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
While Garmin–Cervélo's Christophe Le Mével, who entered the day third overall and had on two other occasions come within a time bonus of claiming the jersey, made the group, neither he nor anyone in it was destined to take pink. Largely under the impetus of Michele Scarponi's Lampre–ISD team, the breakaway group was caught before the finish. Contador and the rest of the overall favorites finished at the front of the race, with riders well down in the standings claiming the time bonuses, meaning Contador retained the race leadership after all.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Contador took the most time against the main field out of any day in stage 13. On this day, which ended at the Grossglockner in Austria, he and Rujano again finished well ahead of the main field. As they approached the finish line, Contador did not attempt to sprint for the win, allowing Rujano to take it. Their minute and a half time gap, plus the time bonus for second place, gave Contador a lead of over three minutes in the overall standings. Only in the 2009 Tour de France had he ever held a larger lead.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
The next two days were extremely difficult high mountain stages, both won by members of the Euskaltel–Euskadi team. Contador finished the best of any rider in the top five overall on both days, and so further padded his advantage. Wearing a black armband to memorialize fellow Spanish cyclist Xavier Tondó who, though not a participant in the race, died while it was run, Contador dominantly won the stage 16 uphill individual time trial. This result put him nearly five minutes clear of the next-best rider, the largest such advantage he had ever held in any race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
In stage 19, Contador again finished with another rider ahead of the main field. This time it was Astana's Paolo Tiralongo, a former teammate of Contador's. Just as he had with Rujano earlier, Contador appeared to allow his companion a stage win he could have easily taken himself. Contador later commented that the victory, the first of Tiralongo's 12-year career, was meant as a gesture of thanks to the Italian for all the support riding he did for him in 2010 when the two were on the same squad.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Although Contador claimed that he was not going to give his strongest effort in the stage 21 individual time trial, the Giro's final stage, his ride was still good enough for third place, extending his winning margin to over six minutes, giving him his sixth and statistically most dominant Grand Tour championship. Contador's two stage wins and numerous top five placings also made him the winner of the points competition, by a substantial margin. Michele Scarponi and Vincenzo Nibali completed the podium, in that order, having targeted one another once it became obvious that Contador's advantage was insurmountable.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Nibali held second place on stages 13 and 14, but Scarponi overtook him on Gardeccia, finishing a minute and a half better (only six seconds the lesser of Contador), and never relinquished second place. Stefano Garzelli was in the breakaway on the Gardeccia stage and took maximum points on three of the day's five climbs, and second place points on the other two. It was largely thanks to this performance that he won the mountains classification at the end of the race. Roman Kreuziger, still eligible by a matter of months, won the youth competition with his ride to sixth place overall.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
On the whole, success proved to be fairly widespread. As did Contador, Cavendish won two stages, stages 10 and 12, but prior to Cavendish's second victory no team, let alone individual rider, had won two individual stages. Four other teams – Androni Giocattoli, Euskaltel–Euskadi, Lampre–ISD, and Movistar Team – eventually repeated as stage winners. Androni Giocattoli won the ill-fated stage 3 with Ángel Vicioso and later stage 13 with Rujano. Euskaltel–Euskadi's wins came on the two most difficult stages in the race, the back-to-back high mountain stages that preceded the second rest day.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Their leader Igor Antón won the controversy-laden day ending at Monte Zoncolan, when the Monte Crostis climb was removed from the route. The next day, Mikel Nieve won the stage that Contador described as the hardest of his life, a seven-and-a-half-hour day with five high climbs ending at Gardeccia. Following Petacchi's win in the contentious sprint that finished the first road stage, the Lampre–ISD team took another stage win with young Diego Ulissi in stage 17, after another contentious sprint in which Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti actually crossed the line first but was relegated to third for shoving Ulissi.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
The Movistar Team had winners in stage 6 with Francisco Ventoso on an uphill sprint and in the Giro's last road race stage with Vasil Kiryienka in a solo breakaway that finished almost five minutes better than the rest of the field. Rabobank, Omega Pharma–Lotto, Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli, Ag2r–La Mondiale, Liquigas–Cannondale, Astana, and Garmin–Cervélo each won a single stage. With Acqua & Sapone's Garzelli claiming the mountains classification and Yaroslav Popovych from Team RadioShack the Trofeo Fuga Pinarello, 15 of the 22 teams that completed the race came away with some sort of victory.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview
Much like had occurred at the final podium celebrations for the 2009 Tour de France, the wrong national anthem was played for Contador. Race organizers mistakenly played an old Spanish anthem with lyrics favored by former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The Spanish national anthem as it should have been played would have been purely instrumental.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
During the descent of the Passo del Bocco in stage 3, Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt crashed and suffered catastrophic injury. Race doctor Giovanni Tredici, and the doctor for the Garmin–Cervélo team were in cars very near Weylandt's group on the road, and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for approximately 40 minutes. Doctors also gave Weylandt adrenaline and atropine to try to restart his heart, though Tredici stated that resuscitation efforts were rather clearly in vain, and that Weylandt was already dead by the time they got to him.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Doctors were never able to revive Weylandt, and he was declared dead on the spot. A short time later, Weylandt's body was airlifted off the descent and taken to a nearby hospital, where the pathologist conducting the autopsy concluded that the Belgian had died immediately upon crashing. Weylandt's death was the first at the Giro in 25 years, and the first at one of cycling's Grand Tours since Fabio Casartelli died during the 1995 Tour de France.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Manuel Antonio Cardoso of Team RadioShack had been nearest to Weylandt when he crashed, and stated that Weylandt had touched a small retaining wall on the left side of the road with either his pedal or his handlebars, and was then catapulted across the road to the other side, where he again collided with something. He had looked behind him to ascertain his exact position in the race when he clipped the wall. Teammate Tom Stamsnijder also witnessed the accident, saying "it was a very hard fall."


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Italian police, conducting an inquest into Weylandt's death, also took an official statement from the Portuguese rider at Team RadioShack's hotel. A memorial was placed at the crash site, where Weylandt's pregnant girlfriend and his mother, along with cyclists, passersby and residents of nearby villages, placed flowers. The Leopard Trek team remained in the race for another day at the encouragement of Weylandt's family. David Millar, who had taken the race lead that same day, spent the evening discussing with members of Leopard Trek, Weylandt's best friend Tyler Farrar, and his girlfriend and mother how best to pay tribute to the fallen rider.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Race director Angelo Zomegnan said in a post-stage press conference that race officials would respect whatever decision the peloton made regarding the next day's stage. As usually occurs when a rider dies in the midst of a multi-day cycling event, the next day was not competitively raced. Instead, the stage was preceded by a minute's silence, and ridden as a procession in Weylandt's memory. Each of the 23 teams took to the front of the peloton for about 15 minutes, and members of Leopard Trek, along with Farrar, were allowed to finish first with their arms around each other.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Millar led the rest of the field across the line a few seconds later. No results for the stage were recorded, and it did not count towards the general classification or any of the points competitions. After the stage, instead of any podium presentations, the four jersey classification leaders (Millar, Alessandro Petacchi, Gianluca Brambilla, and Jan Bakelants) appeared on stage with the Leopard Trek team to lead another moment of silence. Subsequently, Farrar and the remaining Leopard Trek squad all decided to leave the race. Farrar later revealed that his inclusion with the Leopard Trek squad in the final moments of the neutralized stage was a decision made solely on their part, one for which he felt extremely grateful.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Wouter Weylandt
A moment of silence was also held for Weylandt before stage 11, as his funeral took place the same day. Pieter Weening also gave the first pink jersey to be presented to him on the podium to Weylandt's surviving family, and stage 11 winner John Gadret stated that he had Weylandt in his thoughts as he crossed the line and dedicated his win to him, even though the two were not well acquainted.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Xavier Tondó
On 23 May, during the second rest day of the Giro, Xavier Tondó, the reigning Vuelta a Castilla y León champion and one of the leaders on the season for the Movistar Team, was killed in a freak accident at home while preparing to train with teammates. He was reportedly crushed between his car and a garage door.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Xavier Tondó
Although he was not taking part in this edition of the Giro, Tondó had participated in the 2010 edition and was a popular, well-liked rider. Race leader Alberto Contador, along with many others, rode the stage 16 individual time trial with black armbands. The stage was preceded by a minute of silence. Tondó's teammate Branislau Samoilau posted a time that was provisionally best much of the day and was visibly overcome with emotion when interviewed by assembled media after his ride. Contador, who recorded the best time in the time trial, dedicated the victory to Tondó, as the two were acquainted despite never having been teammates.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Death of Xavier Tondó
Five days later, teammate and close friend Vasil Kiryienka rode to victory in a solo effort, and he too dedicated the stage victory to Tondó, pointing skyward as he crossed the finish line. The team had met to consider withdrawing from the race after Tondó's death, but instead the riders unanimously voted to ride on. Kiryienka commented that the squad at the Giro hoped to get a further stage win (as Francisco Ventoso's win had come before Tondó's death) to honor him, while other members of the team grieved with Tondó's family. In the final days of the race, many fans wrote signs memorializing Tondó as they had with Weylandt earlier on.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Aftermath
Immediately after Weylandt's death, Giro officials announced that they would not issue his dossard number 108 in future editions of the race. His number was a prominent part of signs held by fans on the roadside at not just the Giro but other events later in the season as well, including the Tour of California where his death was part of the reason the first stage of that race was canceled due to safety concerns. Many other races, mostly those held in Weylandt's native Belgium, also began the practice of not issuing the number. The Belgian federation criticized this gesture, saying it would not bring Weylandt back and would only serve to continually remind fans and those in the sport of Weylandt's death. They issued the number for the Belgian national road race championships.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Aftermath
About a month after the race concluded, reports began surfacing which stated that Giro director Angelo Zomegnan was going to be ousted from that position. Though praised for his delicate handling of Weylandt's death, Zomegnan's handling of the teams' protest of and eventual removal of the Monte Crostis from the Giro race route was seen much less approvingly. A further month later, RCS Sport, owners of the race, confirmed that Zomegnan had been removed from his largely autocratic position as race director. He was replaced by RCS general director Michele Acquarone and Mauro Vegni, along with a team of former professional riders. Zomegnan remains as an RCS consultant and director of the 2013 UCI Road World Championships in Florence. Zomegnan had held the position since 2004, beginning with the 2005 Giro d'Italia.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Aftermath
Along with the new organizational team came a certain measure of fan involvement in the direction of the 2012 Giro d'Italia. Fans of the race were able to vote on its official Facebook page for two climbs, from an initial pool of 64, to appear in the race. After several rounds of voting, the Passo dello Stelvio and the Passo del Mortirolo were chosen. They were later announced to be part of the same stage for the 2012 Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Race overview, Aftermath
Fans were also given the opportunity to choose from among three prototypes for the design of the pink jersey in the 2012 Giro. Fans could also participate in a promotion called "Tweet Your Maglia Rosa" where they would submit 140-character or fewer Twitter messages describing what the pink jersey means to them. They were set to be printed on the jersey along with tweets from Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, and Vincenzo Nibali, in the respective riders' native languages. Ten tweets – six to be printed in Italian, two in English, and one each in Spanish and French – were eventually chosen by fan voting.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
Alberto Contador rode the Giro with full knowledge that he was to answer to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding his positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, since his national federation cleared him of doping charges but both the UCI and the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) chose to appeal the ruling. He rode and won with the most dominant Grand Tour performance of his career, and later rode a relatively normal and full 2011 season as his CAS date was continually pushed back. It was originally scheduled for June, to occur soon enough to decide conclusively his status prior to the 2011 Tour de France, but it was instead pushed back to August and then again to November.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
The hearing was at last held in November, with a verdict expected in January 2012. This, however, was also subject to a delay. Finally, on 6 February 2012, the court spoke, overturning the Spanish federation's decision to clear Contador and assessing the rider a backdated two-year ban, from the date of his adverse test at the 2010 Tour de France. The backdated ban meant any results obtained from the time of that test to the time the court announced its verdict were to be vacated and awarded in turn to previously second-placed riders.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
This effectively made Michele Scarponi the new Giro champion and points winner, and it made José Rujano and Vincenzo Nibali into stage winners in this Giro. The decision was reminiscent of that handed down in the Alessandro Petacchi case from the 2007 Giro d'Italia. The court's ruling opinion was that the minute amount of clenbuterol found was probably not caused by a doping regimen, but that strict liability rules meant that Contador had nonetheless violated WADA's World Anti- Doping Code. The court held that the adverse finding itself was never in doubt, but merely how the substance had entered the athlete's body. This was not a matter under which they could exonerate him.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
Reaction to the decision, and to the protracted nature of the case itself, was widespread and negative. Five-time Giro winner Eddy Merckx expressed surprise at the result and disappointment that it could further sully the sport's image, saying "It's like someone wants to kill cycling." Since-ousted race director Angelo Zomegnan called the decision to strip the Giro championship "nonsense," noting that Contador was permitted to ride at the time and there were no irregularities of any kind during the race. His successor Michele Acquarone was also upset by the decision, believing that damage had been done to the Giro and noting that RCS Sport would need to commission a new trophy to award to Scarponi.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
Scarponi, as well as John Gadret, the rider elevated onto the podium now in third place overall, both expressed sympathy for Contador and the feeling that being awarded these prestigious results in a court of law nearly a year after the race concluded kept them from feeling as good as they would were they attained on the road.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Contador's results stripped
Both Scarponi's overall championship and Gadret's podium finish constituted the first such results for either of them in a Grand Tour. Gadret, who had supported Contador's presence in the Giro peloton when the race began, reconsidered his position in hindsight, saying the Spaniard's attendance irrevocably changed the race. Further reactions from other personalities within the sport toward the ruling and the case itself were near universally negative. WADA celebrated the decision, calling the court "robust and thorough" in its jurisprudence of the World-Anti Doping Code.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
In the 2011 Giro d'Italia, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and allowing time bonuses for the first three finishers on mass-start stages, the leader received a pink jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the Giro d'Italia, and the winner was considered the winner of the Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a red jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing in the top 15 in a stage. Unlike in the better known points classification in the Tour de France, the type of stage had no effect on what points were on offer – each stage had the same points available on the same scale. The win earned 25 points, second place earned 20 points, third 16, fourth 14, fifth 12, sixth 10, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 15th. In addition, points could be won in intermediate sprints.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a green jersey. In the mountains classifications, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists. Each climb was categorized as either first, second, third, or fourth-category, with more points available for the higher-categorized climbs. The Cima Coppi, the race's highest point of elevation, awarded still more points than the other first-category climbs.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1986 were eligible.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
There were also three classifications for teams. In the Trofeo Fast Team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time; the Trofeo Super Team was a team points classification, with the top 20 placed riders on each stage earning points (20 for first place, 19 for second place and so on, down to a single point for 20th) for their team; and the Fair Play classification rewarded those teams that best avoided penalty points for minor technical infringements.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Classification leadership
The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run, and shows to whom each jersey would have been awarded each day had Alberto Contador been removed from the standings as the race was ongoing.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Final standings, Minor classifications
Other less well-known classifications, whose leaders did not receive a special jersey, were awarded during the Giro. These awards were based on points earned throughout the three weeks of the tour. Each mass-start stage had one intermediate sprint, the Traguardo Volante, or T.V. The T.V. gave bonus seconds towards the general classification, points towards the regular points classification, and also points towards the T.V. classification. This award was known by various names in previous years, and was previously time-based. It was won by Jan Bakelants of the Omega Pharma–Lotto team.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Final standings, Minor classifications
Other awards included the Combativity classification, which was a compilation of points gained for position on crossing intermediate sprints, mountain passes and stage finishes. Original general classification winner Alberto Contador won this award at the race's conclusion; upon his disqualification it passed to mountains category winner Stefano Garzelli. The Azzurri d'Italia classification was based on finishing order, but points were awarded only to the top three finishers in each stage. It was originally won, like the closely associated points classification, by Contador, and passed to José Rujano when the Spaniard's results were stripped.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Final standings, Minor classifications
Additionally, the Trofeo Fuga Pinarello rewarded riders who took part in a breakaway at the head of the field, each rider in an escape of ten or fewer riders getting one point for each kilometre that the group stayed clear. Team RadioShack's Yaroslav Popovych was first in this competition. Teams were given penalty points for minor technical infringements. Six different teams – Liquigas–Cannondale, Androni Giocattoli, HTC–Highroad, Quick-Step, BMC Racing Team, and Colnago–CSF Inox – avoided incurring penalties over the course of the race, and so shared in winning the Fair Play classification.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Final standings, World Rankings points
The Giro was one of 27 events throughout the season that contributed points towards the 2011 UCI World Tour. Points were awarded to the top 20 finishers overall, and to the top five finishers in each stage. In early 2012, the points earned by Contador for overall placing were redistributed, and those gained for stage finishes were removed. Riders from non-World Tour teams, who were not initially allocated points, received them.


2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile
The 2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile, or Giro Donne, was the 22nd running of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. It was held over ten stages from 1 to 10 July 2012, starting in Rome and finishing with an individual time trial in San Francesco al Campo near Turin.


2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile, Classification
There were five different jerseys awarded in the 2011 Giro Donne. These followed the same format as those in the men's Giro d'Italia, and as in the men's race, the leader of the general classification received a pink jersey. This classification was calculated by adding the combined finishing times of the riders from each stage, and the overall winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile, Classification
The other jerseys differ in colour from those of the men's Giro:


2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile, Further reading
In November 2013 a book named Strijd in het vrouwenpeloton: de Giro door de ogen van Marianne Vos en Ellen van Dijk was published. The book is about the experiences of Ellen van Dijk and Marianne Vos of this Giro d'Italia Femminile edition.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11
The 2011 Giro d'Italia began on 7 May, and stage 11 occurred on 18 May. The 2011 edition commemorated the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The majority of the race, and the entire first half, was situated entirely within Italy without visiting any other nations. The race commenced with a team time trial, an event where each member of a team starts together racing against the clock. The stage provided for the first two race leaders, members of the winning HTC–Highroad team.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11
The race, and the entire cycling world, were turned upside down by the death of Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt in stage 3. Weylandt had crashed from near the back of the race while descending a hill, and sustained such grievous injury that he was established to have died instantly upon falling to the road. The next day's stage was neutralized, as the peloton rode slowly and allowed Weylandt's teammates, as well as his good friend and training partner Tyler Farrar from the Garmin–Cervélo squad, to cross the line first with their arms around one another. All of them subsequently withdrew from the Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11
Dutch rider Pieter Weening won the first stage competitively raced after Weylandt's death, and took over the race leadership for four days. He surrendered it to another stage winner, strong overall favorite Alberto Contador who dominated the field on the way up Mount Etna. Although it was perhaps against his will, Contador continued to hold the race leadership through the end of the first half of the race, topping the overall standings with the much more difficult second half of the Giro still to race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 1
The Giro begins with a team time trial, a favored event of race director Angelo Zomegnan who has included such a stage in every Giro since he first assumed that mantle. The course is flat, but is also technical, with several sharp turns, and it also covers tram tracks. Pre -race analysis found it comparable to the equivalent stage in Venice which began the 2009 Giro. The HTC–Highroad team, known at that time as Team Columbia–High Road, are again favorites, along with several other teams. While the Giro itself commemorates the anniversary of Italian unification, so too does the first stage in particular, by visiting Italy's first capital of Turin.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 1
The Omega Pharma–Lotto team was the first on the course, and stopped the clock in 21'21", which held up as a competitive time for the rest of the stage. Nearly every squad came within a second, on either side, of matching their time of ten minutes flat at the 9 km (5.6 mi) intermediate time check. The one which was notably faster was HTC–Highroad, who were at 9'48" after 9 km. They were the only squad to finish in under 21 minutes, winning the stage with a time of 20'59".


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 1
Team time trial winners from the 2010 Giro Liquigas–Cannondale opted to ride somewhat conservatively, particularly over the tram tracks, knowing that with less than 20 km of racing that resultant time gaps would not be excessive. Their leader Vincenzo Nibali effectively gained eight seconds on Giro favorite Alberto Contador with Saxo Bank–SunGard finishing eighth to Liquigas-Cannondale's fourth. Michele Scarponi also gained time on Contador, with the Lampre–ISD six seconds better than Contador's squad.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 1
The most notable time loss on the day however was suffered by Joaquim Rodríguez, with his Team Katusha squad finishing a distant 20th, over a minute off HTC-Highroad's winning time. Marco Pinotti was the first HTC-Highroad rider over the finish line, giving him the first pink jersey. He had previously held the jersey for four days in the 2007 Giro, but he made it clear after the stage that he would work for Mark Cavendish in the first road race stage and could possibly cede the jersey to the Manxman.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 2
This stage was flat, and one of few stages intended to end in a mass sprint. It took place on National Bicycle Day in Italy, the second time such an occasion was observed. A very short fourth-category climb occurred 30 km (19 mi) from the finish line, to award the first green jersey. The arrival town of Parma hosted the Giro on eight other occasions, and was chosen for National Bicycle Day due to the vast quantities of bike trails it has.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 2
A singular rider formed the day's breakaway. Sebastian Lang of Omega Pharma–Lotto accelerated out of the peloton after just 3 km (1.9 mi). No one joined him, and the German stayed out front alone for the next 215 km (134 mi), having held an advantage at one point of over 20 minutes. He had still been in first position over the fourth-category climb, meaning he was awarded the green jersey on the podium after the stage. After he was caught, some 26 km (16 mi) from the finish, an eight-man counter-attack formed.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 2
Their advantage was never greater than 30 seconds, and when Eduard Vorganov crashed 10 km (6.2 mi) from the end of the stage, the others lost their rhythm and were caught soon after. Garmin–Cervélo rode on the front of the peloton in the final kilometers, trying to set up the finish for their sprinter Tyler Farrar. At the finish, however, Farrar's last leadout man Murilo Fischer was unable to match the accelerations of Mark Renshaw and Danilo Hondo, respective leadout men for Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi, and the American faded to seventh on the day.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 2
Petacchi opened the sprint first, to the right of Renshaw, leaving Cavendish to take the line to Renshaw's left. Just as Cavendish occupied a position with open road in front of him, Petacchi deviated from his line and rode directly in front of Cavendish for a few meters. When Cavendish tried to go around Petacchi, the Italian again changed his line to stay in front of Cavendish. After a moment, both sprinted with open road in front of them, and Petacchi came across the line first by a matter of millimeters. Cavendish was visibly upset, shouting and gesticulating at Petacchi after they crossed the finish line.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 2
Cavendish's 12-second time bonus for second place nonetheless made him the new overall race leader. Cavendish later explained that his frustration was not directed at Petacchi, but at race officials, since he felt he would be relegated if he had sprinted in a similar manner. However, he also said that he never had the intention of appealing the result. His sporting director Valerio Piva also took that stance, stating that Petacchi's sprint was "not really fair play." The next day, Cavendish made a point of apologizing to Petacchi via Twitter for his outburst after crossing the finish line.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3
This stage was categorized flat, though there were two climbs near the end. The third-category Passo del Bocco was expected to split the peloton, while the fourth-category Madonna delle Grazie climb was expected to make the finish trying for any sprinters remaining at the front of the race. Pre -race analysis led to speculation that the race lead would probably change hands on this stage. The departure town of Reggio Emilia was chosen for this Giro because it is where the flag of Italy was first created.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Race report
Four riders distinguished themselves as the day's breakaway – Bart De Clercq, Gianluca Brambilla, Pavel Brutt, and Davide Ricci. They established their position as the day's signature escape after 32 km (20 mi). Overnight race leader Mark Cavendish had repeated mechanical trouble, needing two full bike changes early in the stage. This gapped him off from the front of the race, leaving him three minutes back of the stage winner at day's end and surrendering the pink jersey.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Race report
The break's time gap began to fall at the 60 km (37 mi) to go mark, having been at a maximum of six minutes. De Clercq tried to accelerate out of the breakaway for the mountains points at the top of the Passo del Bocco, since his teammate Sebastian Lang held the mountains jersey after his day-long breakaway in stage 2. He started his sprint much too early, however, and Brambilla beat him to the summit, making the Italian the new wearer of the green jersey.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Race report
The main field, paced mostly by Lampre–ISD as they tried to keep the pace difficult to isolate Cavendish while protecting their sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, caught them with 12 km (7.5 mi) left to race. Shortly thereafter, another four-man group formed. After some moments, they were joined by David Millar to make for a leading quintet. This group stayed away to the finish, with Androni Giocattoli's Ángel Vicioso was easily the strongest sprinter present, taking the win. Millar's time bonus for second, coupled with the group's 21-second gap over the main field, made the Briton the new race leader.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Death of Wouter Weylandt
During the descent of the Passo del Bocco, Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt crashed and suffered catastrophic injury. Race doctor Giovanni Tredici, and the doctor for the Garmin–Cervélo team were in cars very near Weylandt's group on the road, and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for approximately 40 minutes. Doctors also gave Weylandt adrenaline and atropine to try to restart his heart, though Tredici stated that resuscitation efforts were rather clearly in vain, and that Weylandt was already dead by the time they got to him. Doctors were never able to revive Weylandt, and he was declared dead on the spot.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Death of Wouter Weylandt
A short time later, Weylandt's body was airlifted off the descent and taken to a nearby hospital, where the pathologist conducting the autopsy concluded that the Belgian had died immediately upon crashing. Weylandt's death was the first at the Giro in 25 years, and the first at one of cycling's Grand Tours since Fabio Casartelli died during the 1995 Tour de France.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Manuel Antonio Cardoso of Team RadioShack had been nearest to Weylandt when he crashed, and stated that Weylandt had touched a small retaining wall on the left side of the road with either his pedal or his handlebars, and was then catapulted across the road to the other side, where he again collided with something. He had looked behind him to ascertain his exact position in the race when he clipped the wall. Teammate Tom Stamsnijder also witnessed the accident, saying "it was a very hard fall."


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Death of Wouter Weylandt
Italian police, conducting an inquest into Weylandt's death, also took an official statement from the Portuguese rider at Team RadioShack's hotel. A memorial was placed at the crash site, where Weylandt's widow and mother, along with cyclists, passersby and residents of nearby villages, placed flowers. The Leopard Trek team remained in the race for another day at the encouragement of Weylandt's family. Zomegnan said in a post-stage press conference that race officials would respect whatever decision the peloton made regarding the next day's stage.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 3, Death of Wouter Weylandt
New race leader Millar spent the evening discussing with members of Leopard Trek, Weylandt's best friend Tyler Farrar, and his widow and mother how best to pay tribute to the fallen rider. Weylandt wore bib number 108 in the race, and Giro officials have said they will not assign the number in future editions of the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 4
This stage was categorized medium mountain, though it was nearly as flat as stage 3. The third-category Passo del Bracco crested after 62 km (39 mi), and the fourth-category Montenero climb occurred just before the finish.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 4
Following the death of Wouter Weylandt, this stage was preceded by a minute's silence, and ridden as a procession in his memory. In keeping with convention, there was no competitive racing. Each of the 23 teams took to the front of the peloton for about 15 minutes, and members of his team Leopard Trek, along with his friend and training mate Tyler Farrar, were allowed to finish first with their arms around each other. Race leader David Millar led the rest of the field across the line a few seconds later.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 4
No results for the stage were recorded, and it did not count towards the general classification or any of the points competitions. After the stage, instead of any podium presentations, the four jersey classification leaders (Millar, Alessandro Petacchi, Gianluca Brambilla, and Jan Bakelants) appeared on stage with the Leopard Trek team to lead another moment of silence. Subsequently, Farrar and the remaining Leopard Trek squad all decided to leave the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
The profile for this stage was bumpy, but more significantly, it incorporated 23 km (14 mi) of unpaved roads. One analyst referred to the course profile as resembling "a mini Tour of Lombardy." Along with two third-category climbs on course, there was a brief uphill at the finish that counted as a mountain climb, as well as numerous uncategorized rises. Zomegnan selected this course specifically to include the sectors of so-called "white roads" after the similar stage in Tuscany in the 2010 Giro opened some large time gaps among the race favorites and was generally accepted as one of the race's more spectacular stages.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
After the withdrawals of Tyler Farrar and Leopard Trek, 197 riders took the start for stage five. BMC Racing Team rider Martin Kohler went on the attack after 12 km (7.5 mi), and for the second time in this Giro, they day's principal breakaway comprised a single rider. His advantage ballooned to almost 13 minutes at one point, but even when it did begin to fall, it did not fall precipitously at first. With 70 km (43 mi) left to race, the Swiss rider still had eight minutes on the main field.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
He was therefore first over the two third-category climbs on the course, and while mountains leader Gianluca Brambilla took maximum points from the peloton on both, Kohler took the green jersey from him at day's end. Where the dirt roads had been muddy in the 2010 Giro, due to heavy rainfall the day that stage was run, on this dry, sunny day, the peloton's passage over unpaved roads led to massive amounts of dust being kicked up in the air.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
Race leader David Millar and second-place man Ángel Vicioso collided and crashed while contesting the intermediate sprint for its bonus time. The crash would later prove costly for Millar. He was caught behind an acceleration from the Liquigas–Cannondale team at the top of the Croce di Fighime, the first dirt-road climb. The only riders with him after the split were Fabio Taborre and Valerio Agnoli, riders whose team leaders were up the road, meaning Millar would have to mount the chase all on his own.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
Nagging injuries from the crash and allergies exacerbated by the dust in the air made the task extremely trying for Millar. He bridged back up to the leading group once, but fell off a second time in the final dirt sector, eventually finishing 2'50" back on the day and surrendering the pink jersey. He later said that despite his effort, "it wasn't possible" to successfully defend the jersey. Numerous other crashes occurred on the day, with Rabobank's Tom Slagter's the most striking. The Dutch neo-pro lay prone on the road for several minutes, during which time race officials had to frantically wave oncoming riders to pass to the right of him. He was taken to a local hospital and diagnosed with a broken jaw, but was not seriously hurt.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
Bram Tankink and Dario Cataldo were the first attackers out of the main field to try to bridge to Kohler, but both had mechanical trouble and had to drop back again. A short time after their effort, Pieter Weening and John Gadret successfully made the bridge, joining the front of the race with about 10 km (6.2 mi) left to race. After moments, Weening attacked out of this group and became the sole leader on the road, as Gadret and Kohler were both swept up by the group of overall favorites, the next on the road.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
Weening continued to hold a tenuous lead the rest of the way, but just as the overall favorites appeared to be about to overtake him, their tactics changed and they simply marked one another in the final kilometer. David Arroyo tried an acceleration with about 500 m (1,600 ft) to go, but it was much too late to have any effect, and Weening stayed away for the stage win. Fabio Duarte and José Serpa took the remaining time bonuses, for second and third, with Christophe Le Mével just behind.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
Had Le Mével taken any of the time bonuses on offer, he would have become the new race leader. Instead, Weening took the pink jersey, the first Dutchman to hold it since Jeroen Blijlevens in the 1999 Giro d'Italia. He gave the physical jersey awarded to him on the podium to Wouter Weylandt's family.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
There are no categorized climbs in this course, but it is again undulating, visiting the Apennines east of Rome. Michele Scarponi offered his analysis of the stage, believing it unlikely that it would be a stage for the sprinters, and that a small breakaway would likely decide the day. Zomegnan concurred that a breakaway would be likely to stay away on this stage, believing it a prelude to the Giro's first high mountain stage the next day.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
This was a more straightforward day of racing than the one previous. Five riders formed the day's principal breakaway – Yaroslav Popovych, Kristof Vandewalle, Sacha Modolo, Frederik Veuchelen, and the original instigator Jussi Veikkanen. Their maximum advantage was left carefully controlled at six minutes. Modolo was the first to lose the pace, and rode for several kilometers in a no-man's land between the other four and the peloton, an effort that cost him sufficient strength that he finished dead last on the day. Veikkanen next fell off the pace to leave a leading trio.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
At this point, Modolo's teammate Stefano Pirazzi set off on the attack from the main field to try to bridge up to the leaders, but he was never able, being caught between the two groups for some 10 km (6.2 mi). Pirazzi's attack made little if any strategic sense, but it pleased the roadside fans who had brought signs showing their support for the Italian. With about 10 km left to race, Vandewalle tried to solo to the finish, leaving Popovych and Veuchelen behind to be swept up by the main field.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
His advantage was only 48 seconds at that point, and the peloton reabsorbed him with just under 2 km (1.2 mi) remaining. Attacks from David Millar, František Raboň, Matthias Frank, and Robert Kišerlovski were all very short-lived. Within the final kilometer, Danilo Di Luca took first position on the road and for a moment appeared poised for victory before he was passed up by former teammate Alessandro Petacchi.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
The points leader had started his sprint from nearly 600 m (2,000 ft) out, since leadout man Danilo Hondo pulled off at that point upon seeing that Francisco Ventoso and not Petacchi was sitting in his slipstream. Ventoso occupied first position with about 100 m (330 ft) to go, at which point it seemed that Petacchi was going to pass him and claim the stage win, but the Italian suddenly stopped pedaling just meters from the finish line, giving Ventoso the stage win.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
When interviewed by media shortly after the stage's conclusion, Petacchi was so exhausted that for over a minute he did not have sufficient breath to speak, and could only gasp for air. He later said he was satisfied with second on the day, since the uphill finish meant victory was unlikely for a field sprinter like him. Ventoso, for his part, had targeted this stage ahead of time, believing that the group that arrived at the finish together would be select and not include the entire peloton. The top ten in the overall standings were essentially unchanged, giving Pieter Weening another day in the pink jersey.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
Montevergine di Mercogliano is a frequently-used summit arrival in the Giro. Damiano Cunego and Danilo Di Luca both won stages ending at this climb en route to overall victory, in 2004 and 2007 respectively. The climb is 17 km (11 mi) long but averages only 5 percent gradient, with its hardest sections at 10 percent. Former Giro champion Gilberto Simoni analyzed the stage, believing that with a flat stage to follow that the overall contenders would show themselves on this one, with a pure climber the likes of Joaquim Rodríguez perhaps the favorite.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
This stage was largely similar to stage 5 in terms of how it played out. A five-rider breakaway distinguished itself after 40 km (25 mi), with Federico Canuti, Jérôme Pineau, Lars Bak, Giovanni Visconti, and Matteo Montaguti the riders involved. Their time gap was kept quite small, due to the short distance of the stage. Vacansoleil–DCM rider Johnny Hoogerland made the bridge to the leading group and not only kept their wheels, he pulled at the front for several kilometers. By the time the Montevergine climb, began Pineau and Visconti had been reabsorbed by the peloton.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
Canuti then crashed, and fell back. Bak was the rider to put in the solo attack, leaving Montaguti and Hoogerland behind. This was more likely to protect Kanstantsin Sivtsov's and Marco Pinotti's high positions in the overall classification than for Bak's own chances at victory, since the stocky Dane hardly had the right build to succeed on a summit finish. With their teammate up the road, Sivtsov and Pinotti could sit on wheels and led the onus for chasing down the remaining breakaway rider fall on other teams. Bak was caught with about 8 km (5.0 mi) remaining to race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
Omega Pharma–Lotto's Sebastian Lang briefly escaped, but later his teammate, Belgian neo-pro Bart De Clercq, was able to get away and build a solid lead. His advantage stretched to 30 seconds entering the final 3 km (1.9 mi), which averaged a 6% gradient. He still had a time gap entering the final kilometer. At this point, Michele Scarponi accelerated out of the group of overall favorites, second on the road, and the resultant responses brought the race's elite rapidly up to De Clercq at the front of the race. De Clercq was able to hold on for the first win of his pro career by about the length of his front tire.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
De Clercq said after the stage that he had been suffering badly in the final 3 km and saw the elite riders closing on him, but managed to just maintain his advantage. He admitted that his departed compatriot Weylandt had not really been in his thoughts when he crossed the finish line. Roman Kreuziger, who took third on the stage, felt that Scarponi had been the strongest rider in the uphill sprint, but he also said he was pleased with his own placing.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
Stefano Garzelli, fourth on the day, had had his Acqua & Sapone squad doing the bulk of the pacemaking in the peloton at the foot of the climb and on its early stretches. He criticized his rivals' teams after the stage for a seeming lack of interest in stage wins, since none of them sent any riders to the front to aid the chase. Going against pre-stage expectations, race leader Pieter Weening managed to retain the pink jersey by finishing 19th on the day, safely in with the 26-rider group that finished together at the head of the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
This was a flat stage, with the course staying right along the Tyrrhenian coast. There were no categorized climbs, short uncategorized rises on course, and a slight, but sudden, uphill right at the finish.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
Two Italian riders found an early breakaway in this stage. They were Vacansoleil–DCM's Mirko Selvaggi and Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli's Leonardo Giordani. They rode off the front after just 2 km (1.2 mi) and were afforded nearly 11 minutes as their maximum time gap, a sizable margin considering the stage's flat profile. HTC–Highroad led the chase from the peloton for their sprinter Mark Cavendish, who noted before the stage that positioning coming into the slight uphill at the finale would be critical. Though their advantage held up than the stage's profile might have indicated, Giordani and Selvaggi did not stay away.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
The two Italians patted one another on the back as the main field passed them up with some 7.5 km (4.7 mi) to go. The Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli team took over at the front at that point, setting up Oscar Gatto to accelerate out of the main field with just under 2 km (1.2 mi) remaining. He quickly attained a time gap, and with the uphill at the finish, the sprinters' teams were unable to bring him back, giving him the stage win.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
The day's major surprise came just behind him, as Saxo Bank–SunGard captain and prohibitive Giro favorite Alberto Contador duplicated Gatto's attack to surge clear moments later. He too stayed out front to the finish, coming in just behind Gatto to gain 5 seconds of actual time and a 12-second time bonus. This moved him up to fifth overall, best placed among the true overall favorites. Contador's manager Bjarne Riis commented after the stage that his star rider's attack had not been planned going into the stage, but he credited the Spaniard for seizing an opportunity when it presented itself.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
Europe's most active volcano was the principal feature of stage 9. The peloton ascended the mountain twice, first up the northern face and then on the steeper southern face for a summit arrival. The departure town of Messina is general classification contender Vincenzo Nibali's hometown, and pre-race analysis expected that he may target this stage for that reason.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
The Giro's most difficult stage so far also featured the largest morning breakaway so far. Nine riders found the breakaway, among them Giovanni Visconti and Yaroslav Popovych, both of whom had been in breakaways earlier in the race also, as well as Pablo Lastras, who came into the day in seventh place in the overall classification. Their maximum advantage was five minutes, though after the chase had begun in earnest and the time gap fell to 3'32" it again went up to 4'27".


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
The official beginning of the Etna summit finish came with just under 20 km (12 mi) to race, but the road went uphill for easily twice that distance, meaning the final climb was quite long indeed. At 13 km (8.1 mi) to go, only Visconti, Lastras, Mathias Frank and Jan Bakelants remained at the front of the race, with a gap of 2'30" over the group of overall favorites and their remaining teammates. Bakelants tried a solo move at this point, but this succeeded in only in dropping Lastras, and the other three continued to form a leading trio.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
At about 10 km (6.2 mi) to go, race leader Pieter Weening lost the pace of the group of favorites, after he had held it during the first ascent of Etna. He finished the day six and a half minutes back of the stage winner, now the fourth rider to lose the pink jersey. Around this time, Bakelants accelerated from the front of the race again to become sole leader on the road. José Rujano also put in a move from the group of favorites and quickly got a time gap.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
Just after Rujano's move came an acceleration from overall favorite Alberto Contador. Michele Scarponi tried to follow, but very quickly lost the pace and struggled even to keep the pace of those Contador initially left behind, ceding 17 seconds at the finish line to most of the other overall contenders. Rujano put in an intensive effort simply to hold Contador's wheel. The two very quickly passed up the remaining three riders from the morning breakaway, and attained nearly a minute's advantage over the other contenders in only about 2 kilometers.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
Contador gestured to Rujano to seemingly ask him to take a pull at the front, but when the Venezuelan did not do so, Contador shed him as well to solo to a dominant stage win. Though Contador had won the 2008 Giro d'Italia, this was his first stage win at the Italian Grand Tour.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
Everyone lost major time to Contador. Stefano Garzelli, Vincenzo Nibali, Roman Kreuziger, David Arroyo, and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (who began the day second overall and retained that position) lost 50 seconds. Igor Antón lost 59 seconds. Scarponi's group 1'07" down also included Christophe Le Mével and José Serpa. The most noteworthy time losses among the overall contenders were sustained by Denis Menchov and Joaquim Rodríguez. Both lost over two minutes, which coupled with mediocre stage 1 team trial performances effectively eliminated the overall hopes for either, as they sat over three minutes down in 20th and 22nd place respectively.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
At the end of the day, the group containing Mark Cavendish and several of his teammates and leadout men narrowly missed disqualification based on the time cut, beating the minimum survival time by 30 seconds. This near miss touched off a bit of controversy, as fellow sprinter Francisco Ventoso claimed that Cavendish had illegally used the race caravan for slipstreams to ease his way up the mountain and should have been disqualified. Two riders, however, did succumb to the time cut, Robbie McEwen and Graeme Brown.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
The two Australian sprinters had remarkably finished nearly an hour slower than Contador and over half an hour beyond the time cut, leading to their disqualifications from the race. After the stage, Nibali and Kreuziger both commented that Contador seemed well better than the rest of the field on Etna, though the Spaniard himself cautioned that there was a long way and several very difficult stages left to go in the race.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
This stage was to take place after a very long transfer on the race's first rest day and was to be another flat stage. Scarponi believed that with the long, shallow uphill at the end of the course it was unlikely to feature a mass sprint, instead favoring an attacking rider like Di Luca. This stage visited the small Molise region, one of 17 visited by this year's Giro, due to unification celebrations (the three regions not visited – Sardinia, Apulia, and Valle d'Aosta – would be utilized in later editions of the Giro). The course turned northwards to head back towards the finishing city of Milan. Zomegnan, unlike Scarponi, believed that this would be a sprinter's stage.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
Nearly immediately after the true beginning of the stage, Fumiyuki Beppu and Pierre Cazaux went on the attack and got clear of the field. Yuriy Krivtsov made the bridge a short while later, and the three formed the day's breakaway. When their time gap began to exceed six minutes, Saxo Bank–SunGard took to the front of the peloton to protect race leader Alberto Contador. Beppu did most of the work in the breakaway, and won the one hill climb and intermediate sprint on the course.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
At 50 km (31 mi) to go, the time gap had fallen to under three minutes, which meant the peloton risked catching the escapees too early and inviting a counter move. Their pace eased a bit, and the trio was not brought back until 11.6 km (7.2 mi) to go. No one attempted a counterattack at that time. The sprint teams, most notably HTC–Highroad and Movistar Team, took over at the front at that point. As the peloton passed under the 3 km (1.9 mi) to go banner, former race leader David Millar surged clear.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
He occupied first position until just before the red kite at 1 km (0.62 mi) to go. HTC–Highroad had been the ones to chase him down, and in so doing their sprinter Mark Cavendish was left without his usual leadout train – from Cavendish's team only he, Kanstantsin Sivtsov and Marco Pinotti (two general classification riders), finished with the leading group. Danilo Hondo was in position to lead out Alessandro Petacchi, but pulled off early and left the Italian to sprint for victory from 250 m (820 ft) out. This was much too far, as Petacchi admitted after the stage.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
At 150 m (490 ft) to go, Cavendish came around Petacchi and easily had the speed to beat him to the finish line for the stage win. Francisco Ventoso also overtook Petacchi, to finish second. After the stage, Cavendish addressed Ventoso's remarks from the day before, challenging the Spaniard to join him in the gruppetto for a stage. Cavendish claimed that, due to his celebrity status, he was always surrounded by race officials and cameramen, even when he was nowhere near the front of the race. There was no significant change to the overall classification with the day's results.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
This was another heavily undulating stage. Four fourth-category ascents were the only point-awarding climbs, but at least eight other uncategorized rises occurred. The stage ended about 50 km (31 mi) from Scarponi's hometown, and one pre-race analyst expected him to be among the attackers on the day. Scarponi himself seemed to leave the possibility open. This was the first time the departure town of Tortoreto has featured in the Giro.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
Race leader Alberto Contador hinted in the previous days that he and his team may tactically relinquish the pink jersey in this stage. While the sprinters teams took up the chase in stage 10 and were likely to do so again in the even flatter stage 12, there was no particular benefit (beyond a difficult-to-achieve stage victory) to any team to chasing down a breakaway on a hilly course like this one. Thus, it made this day's breakaway a very important one, since one of its members could quite possibly obtain the race leadership.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
The day's racing was preceded by a moment of silence and a blessing from a Catholic priest for Wouter Weylandt, whose funeral was held the same day. Because of the significance to this particular breakaway, it took a very long time for a group to get away. Nearly half the stage was covered before 11 riders from 10 teams (Acqua & Sapone was the squad to place two riders in the break) came clear.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
The best-placed man in the group was Christophe Le Mével, third overall and a rider who had come close to claiming the pink jersey earlier in the Giro. Le Mével 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. Le Mével was the virtual race leader much of the day, when the group's time gap over the peloton exceeded the 1'19" by which he trailed Contador entering the stage. The time gap held steady at two minutes for much of the stage. In the peloton, Contador spoke with Le Mével's teammates David Millar and Murilo Fischer, likely discussing whether the Spaniard was content to allow Le Mével to take the race lead.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
The breakaway group's teamwork fell apart when Team Katusha's Daniel Moreno sprinted for the last hill climb, 26 km (16 mi) from the finish. Instead of waiting for the other riders to rejoin him, he kept riding hard. The other riders were unable to work together in any effort to chase Moreno down. Le Mével led a four-man chase, with catching Moreno and maintaining the time gap over Contador of equal concern, but Moreno's advantage continued to increase.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
Movistar Team's Ignatas Konovalovas, a time trial specialist who won the second individual time trial at the 2009 Giro d'Italia, put those skills to work by escaping Le Mével's group and catching Moreno with 9.6 km (6.0 mi) remaining. With 3 km (1.9 mi) to go, the peloton caught all the breakaway members except Konovalovas and Moreno, who held a 45-second advantage. They had been driven mostly by Lampre–ISD, with even points leader Alessandro Petacchi taking pulls at the front of the main field, to set up their captain Michele Scarponi.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
The final kilometer of the stage featured a section with a 10% gradient. Konovalovas and Moreno had 11 seconds going into it. Moreno shed the Lithuanian with 450 m (1,480 ft) remaining, only to be passed up himself by Ag2r–La Mondiale's John Gadret with 200 m (660 ft) to go. Gadret's attack proved to have the right timing, as the Frenchman stayed in first position across the line for the stage win. Gadret said he had had Weylandt on his mind when racing, and although the two were not well acquainted, Gadret dedicated his win to the fallen Belgian.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
Gadret called it "the most beautiful win in [his] career." It was his first Grand Tour stage win and his team's first Giro stage win since the 2006 Giro d'Italia. He described seeing Konovalovas and Moreno slowing, and knew that the overall contenders in the main field were not gunning for the stage win, which made him decide to make his well-fated attack. Scarponi admitted after the stage that he had hoped for victory, but Gadret's attack caught the field by surprise.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
He praised his team, mentioning Petacchi in particular, for their hard work at the front of the race much of the day. Largely due to Scarponi's team, Contador retained the pink jersey. There was a minor change to the overall standings. After being caught, Le Mével missed a late split at the front of the race and finished 13 seconds back. Since he won bonus time in the breakaway, his loss for the day was 9 seconds, but this was still enough to drop him from third to fourth overall. Contador said after the stage that he would have been perfectly happy to let Le Mével take the jersey, but the ambitions of other teams (namely, the stage win) meant the peloton had little choice but to catch the breakaway.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Stage 12 of the 2011 Giro d'Italia took place on 19 May, and the race concluded on 29 May. The 2011 edition commemorated the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The majority of the race was situated entirely within Italy – only the end of stage 13 and beginning of stage 14, in Austria, featured roads outside the home nation.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Alberto Contador entered the second half of the Giro holding the race lead, and never relinquished it. Instead, he continually added to his advantage. After no stage was second place closer to him than it had been the day before. The largest chunk of time taken in one day came in stage 13, the first of three high-mountain stages that preceded the Giro's second rest day. Contador and José Rujano finished over a minute and a half ahead of the rest of the field.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Contador essentially gifted the stage win to Rujano, something he also did later in the race with his former teammate Paolo Tiralongo, since the three-minute overall advantage it gave him was already close to the largest he had ever had in a Grand Tour. He did take one stage win for himself in the second half of the Giro, the uphill individual time trial to the Nevegal.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Two stages in the second half of the Giro had their courses altered shortly before they were run. Stage 14 had been hyped as the debut of the Monte Crostis in the Giro d'Italia, but commissaires from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) mandated it be removed the night before Stage 14 was run. The Giro's last stage, an individual time trial in Milan, was also shortened. Stage 15 was perhaps the queen stage, containing five high-rated climbs, including the Cima Coppi (the race's tallest climb) at the Passo Giau.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21
In the end, Contador won the Giro by over six minutes against Michele Scarponi, and also won the points classification. Roman Kreuziger and Stefano Garzelli won the other jersey awards.


2011 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 12
This was the last flat stage, and as such was seen as likely to be the last stage in which the Giro's sprinters would take the start.