2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
After the intermediate sprint, Garmin–Cervélo set a very high pace and there were many crashes in the peloton, one of which involved Janez Brajkovič, who had to abandon due to a broken collarbone and concussion. Another crash involved Nicki Sørensen who fall off when his bike was clipped by a photo motorcycle and it was dragged along by it for 200m. Alberto Contador, Robert Gesink, Tom Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel and Iván Velasco, who sustained a broken collarbone, were among other riders who crashed on this stage.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 5
The breakaway was caught with 45 km (28 mi) to go, but Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) and Jérémy Roy (FDJ) attacked with 32 km (20 mi) to go, creating a maximum gap of one minute, and the race was in the last 2 km (1 mi) before Voeckler was caught. A late attack by Edvald Boasson Hagen disrupted the lead out lines for the main sprinters, but Mark Cavendish nevertheless took the victory ahead of Philippe Gilbert in the last 50 metres. There were no changes among the leading riders and contenders for the General Classification, but Gilbert assumed the lead in the sprinters' competition, although this was confirmed only after Rojas had been presented with the leader's jersey on the podium.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
This was another undulating stage with a hill in the last few kilometres, expected to suit classics specialists. Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil–DCM) initiated the main break of the day, eventually joined by his teammate Johnny Hoogerland, Anthony Roux (FDJ), Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) and Adriano Malori (Lampre–ISD).


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
Their lead reached 12 minutes, and Hoogerland added to the point in the mountains classification that he already had on the first two categorised climbs of the day, and thus ensured that he would take over the polka-dot jersey, and he, along with Roux and Duque, had ceased trying to stay clear when there were still some 60 km remaining, but Westra and Malori persisted, with Malori only caught with less than three km remaining.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 6
A late attack by Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma–Lotto) and Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) was caught with a kilometre remaining, and the sprint was eventually won by Edvald Boasson Hagen of (Team Sky), with fellow Norwegian Thor Hushovd finishing third to retain the yellow jersey. Although there were several heavy rain showers, there were fewer falls than in the previous stage, although GC contender Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) fell and lost more than a minute.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
This stage had no climbing points available, and was considered to be very much a chance for the sprint specialists to contest the stage win. The break formed very early in the stage, with two riders from FDJ, Gianni Meersman and Mickaël Delage along with Yannick Talabardon (Saur–Sojasun) and Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel–Euskadi).


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 7
A crash with 40 km (25 mi) remaining caused injuries to Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky and Chris Horner of Team RadioShack that caused them to retire from the race, while other GC contenders to lose time included Levi Leipheimer, Ryder Hesjedal, Roman Kreuziger, Rigoberto Urán and Bauke Mollema. The sprint train of HTC–Highroad dominated the closing stages of the races, allowing Mark Cavendish to take the stage win. Overall leader Thor Hushovd finished in seventh place to retain that position.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
This stage had the first category two climb of the race, and brought the race into the higher climbs of the Massif Central. By the ascent of the day's main climb, in the final 25 km, four riders from the original nine-man break remained clear: Rui Costa (Movistar Team), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r–La Mondiale), Tejay van Garderen (HTC–Highroad) and Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar). On that climb, several riders attempted to attack from the group, of whom Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) and Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) attained a considerable margin over the peloton as they pursued the leader.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
Vinokourov started the stage only 32 seconds behind overall leader Thor Hushovd, and this was thought to be a bid to take the yellow jersey. The final climb to the Super Besse ski station saw several attempts at breaks among the leaders, and eventually Costa was able to open a gap to the rest of the breakaway group. Vinokourov overhauled the rest of the escapees, but he was caught within the last kilometre, while Costa won the stage.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 8
Philippe Gilbert broke clear of the peloton to secure second place, and the lead in the points competition, while Hushovd, contrary to expectations, finished in the first group to retain his overall lead. Van Garderen, by virtue of having been the first rider over the category two Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, assumed the lead in the climbers' category.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
This stage, like the preceding one, had more points available for the king of the mountains competition than all the preceding stages added together. There were no breaks from the peloton until the first climb of the day, which was contested by Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) and Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil–DCM), who were joined by Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky), Sandy Casar (FDJ), Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) and Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step). Terpstra was unable to stay with the escapees on higher climbs as the day went on, but the remaining five riders extended their lead.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
An early fall by Alberto Contador, after a collision with Vladimir Karpets, caused aggravation to an earlier knee injury, but a later fall delayed many riders, and caused the elimination of GC contenders Alexander Vinokourov and Jurgen Van den Broeck, and injury to Andreas Klöden and other riders. The pursuit of the breakaway was delayed to allow riders involved in the crash, or who stopped to help their colleagues, to rejoin the peloton, thus increasing the likelihood that Voeckler, less than a minute and a half behind in the general classification, would take over the race leadership.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
Within the final 40 km, two of the leading five riders were involved in a dramatic crash after Juan Antonio Flecha was sideswiped by a France Télévisions car during an overtaking manoeuvre, causing fellow breakaway rider, Johnny Hoogerland to crash into a barbed wire fence. His wound required 33 stitches. Although both riders were able to finish the stage and they shared the combative rider award for the day (one of the rare cases when it had been jointly awarded), they were unable to stay ahead of the peloton.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 9
The other three riders from the breakaway retained most of their lead, with little urgency among the peloton for reducing their winning margin, and Sánchez sprinted clear to take the stage. Voeckler assumed the overall lead and Hoogerland had gained enough points prior to his crash to regain leadership in the King of the Mountains competition, while Philippe Gilbert was again the first to finish from the main group, extending his lead in the points classification.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
The stage after the first rest day returned to lower altitudes, and had only third and fourth category climbs. A six-man breakaway group became established after 11 km, consisting of Rémy Di Gregorio (Astana), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Sébastien Minard (Ag2r–La Mondiale), Julien El Fares (Cofidis), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil–DCM) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun), but never had more than three minutes advantage, and was finally caught by late breakaways, and eventually most of the field, on the ascent of the final climb, some 15 km from the finish.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
That late break was started by Philippe Gilbert, leader of the points competition, and overall leader Thomas Voeckler, and also had Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step) and Tony Martin (HTC–Highroad). This break was unsuccessful, but prevented the usual sprinters' trains, and in the final kilometre, Mark Cavendish was following Daniel Oss (Liquigas–Cannondale) prior to his final effort.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 10
André Greipel (Omega Pharma–Lotto), who had been following Cavendish, was able to pass him in the final straight to win the stage, while Cavendish and third placed José Joaquín Rojas reduced Gilbert's lead in the points competition on a day that had no effect on the upper reaches of the general classification.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
On another stage that was expected to suit sprint specialists, the six members of the breakaway group (Rubén Pérez,  Lars Boom,  Andriy Hrivko, Mickael Delage, Tristan Valentin and Jimmy Engoulvent were unable to gain an advantage of more than four and a half minutes.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stage 11
Amid heavy rain, the break was not caught until the final 3 km (2 mi) of the race, and Mark Cavendish took the bunch sprint for his third win of the race, and the resultant points, in combination with those he took by being the first non-breakaway rider at the intermediate sprint, allowed him to take the leadership in the green jersey competition. The stage had no impact on the overall placings.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21
These are the profiles and summaries for the individual stages in the 2011 Tour de France, with Stage 12 on 14 July, and Stage 21 on 24 July.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 12
The first stage to enter the high mountains, the route included one first category (La Hourquette d'Ancizan, used by the tour for the first time), and two highest category climbs, and a summit finish. The early breakaway, consisting of Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Iván Gutiérrez (Movistar Team), Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel–Euskadi), Laurent Mangel (Saur–Sojasun), Blel Kadri (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Jérémy Roy (FDJ), established a maximum lead of nine minutes and preserved their lead over the first two climbs.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 12
On the final climb, an attack by Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma–Lotto) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel–Euskadi) was the first to overhaul the breakaway, and they were pursued by a group of the main GC contenders, initially with pacesetting by Sylwester Szmyd which reduced the size of the group, although contrary to expectations, yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler remained with the leaders. With 2.5 km (2 mi) remaining, Fränk Schleck broke clear of the yellow jersey group, but was unable to catch Sánchez and Vanendert, who took the first two places. Within the final kilometre, Alberto Contador lost time to some of his main rivals for the overall competition, Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 13
From the original ten man breakaway, three riders, Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Thor Hushovd (Garmin–Cervélo) and David Moncoutié (Cofidis), went clear on the highest category ascent to the Col d'Aubisque, with Roy leading over the top by nearly a minute from Moncoutié, with Hushovd more than a minute further behind. Roy's lead over the peloton at that point was over 8 minutes, and he became leader of the King of the Mountain competition.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 13
On the descent, Hushovd caught Moncoutie and the pair pursued Roy until Hushovd, who had worn the yellow jersey for 7 stages earlier in the race, dropped Moncountie inside the last 3 km (2 mi), and passed Roy to win the stage: Moncoutié eventually took second place. Most of the other riders from the early break stayed clear of the peloton, from which Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma–Lotto), accompanied by Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), broke away on the descent to regain his place in the top ten overall and gain some points over the other contenders in the points competition. There was little other change in the general classification, with the main peloton coming in some seven and a half minutes behind Hushovd, but Andreas Klöden withdrew earlier in the stage having suffered injuries earlier in the race.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 14
This stage had six categorised climbs. From the original break, which had as many as 24 members but was disrupted by several breaks from among the group, Sandy Casar of FDJ had the virtual lead at one point, but by the beginning of the last climb, to the highest category finish at Plateau de Beille his lead was little over two minutes.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 14
On the steeper lower slopes of the climb the chase group was reduced to the eight leading men in the general classification, Voeckler's teammate Pierre Rolland, Rigoberto Urán, who took the white jersey for the leading young rider at the end of the stage, Jean-Christophe Péraud, and Jelle Vanendert. After three abortive attempts by Andy Schleck to split the group, Vanendert broke from the select group of favourites with some 6 km (4 mi) remaining, and was the first to overtake Casar, but only Damiano Cunego was unable to stay with the group.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 14
Ivan Basso put the group under further pressure, but Samuel Sánchez was the only one to make any meaningful pursuit of Vanendert, with those two riders reversing the finishing positions from stage 12. Andy Schleck gained two seconds over the group in the final few hundred metres, and Vanendert's stage victory also earned him the leadership of the mountains category.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 15
On the last largely flat stage before the final day of the race, the main breakaway group of the day had five members; and was established from the beginning of the stage. The group—Mickael Delage (FDJ), Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Mikhail Ignatiev (Team Katusha) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun)—was never more than three minutes clear of the peloton and as the catch approached, Ignatiev and Terpstra moved clear of their colleagues. Terpstra was the last member of the group to be caught, with about 3 km (2 mi) remaining; despite some attempts at late breakaways including one by Philippe Gilbert, sprinters dominated the finish, with Mark Cavendish winning his fourth stage of the race ahead of Tyler Farrar and Alessandro Petacchi.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 16
The first stage to enter the Alps had a very high pace for the first two hours, with no break from the peloton until the second half of the stage. Ten riders eventually moved clear of the peloton, but extended their margin rapidly to six minutes. After an unsuccessful attempt to move ahead of the bunch by Mikhail Ignatiev (Team Katusha), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin–Cervélo) got clear to lead over the category 2 mountain.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 16
He was eventually caught by his teammate Thor Hushovd and another Norwegian, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), before Hushovd went on to win the stage, his second of the tour. On the ascent of the Col de Manse, Alberto Contador made two attacks, the second of which was successful, with Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez joining him in taking a time advantage on the stage over the other riders in contention for high placings in the general classification, and more than a minute over Andy Schleck.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 17
This stage had five categorised climbs, but as with the preceding stage, finished with a descent. More than 60 km (37 mi) had passed before any break was established, but a group of fourteen riders finally got clear and extended their lead to over eight minutes. From that group, Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel–Euskadi) broke away to be first over the Col de Sestriere, but was caught by a counterattack on the final climb initiated by Sylvain Chavanel (Quick-Step), which also included Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and Jonathan Hivert (Saur–Sojasun).


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 17
Boasson Hagen led over the final mountain and retained his lead on the descent to win the stage, while Hivert left the road twice and thus enabled Mollema to take second place. Among the General Classification contenders both Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were aggressive on the last climb, but were unable to drop their opponents, while on the descent an attack initiated by yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler, accompanied by Contador and Samuel Sánchez, was able to escape the group.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 17
Voeckler went off the road on two corners on the descent; and although Contador and Sánchez were able to stay clear for most of the descent, they were caught by a group that included all the other members of the top eight in the overall ranking—apart from Voeckler and Ivan Basso, who both conceded 27 seconds to their rivals.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 18
This stage had three highest category climbs, including both the highest point of the 2011 Tour and the highest finish in the history of the race. A group of 14 riders made a break after 45 km (28 mi), and their lead reached nine minutes, but dropped to five and a half by the time Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) led over the Col Agnel.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 18
The lead group had been reduced to six by the top of the second climb, the Col d'Izoard, which Iglinski again passed first, but by this time the group of favourites for the overall race had been affected by a solo attack by Andy Schleck. He gained two minutes on the remaining part of that climb, and had assistance from Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort, members of his Leopard Trek team who had been in the early break.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 18
The group of the remaining leading General Classification competitors seemed poorly co-ordinated, and with 10 km (6 mi) to go, Schleck had reached the head of the race with an advantage of 4:24 over the yellow jersey group. Cadel Evans was the pace setter for the group in pursuit of Schleck, and some of the leading challengers lost time to the pursuing group, including Alberto Contador and Samuel Sánchez.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 18
Andy Schleck's winning margin was reduced at the end of the stage to a little over two minutes, with his brother Fränk passing the remnants of the chase group to take second place. Thomas Voeckler retained the overall race lead, although his advantage was reduced to 15 seconds. More than half the field finished outside the cut-off time for elimination, but were reprieved and instead penalised by the loss of 20 points, which meant that José Joaquín Rojas moved to 15 points behind Mark Cavendish in the competition for the green jersey.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
This was the shortest stage of the tour, other than time trials, and featured three mountains. Although a 14-man break had moved ahead of the peloton within the first 10 km (6 mi), the race was animated by a break by Alberto Contador after 16 km (10 mi). He was joined in the break by yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans, but another acceleration 5 km (3 mi) later left only Schleck able to stay with Contador.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
Evans soon afterwards had a mechanical issue with his bicycle, and waited for the peloton to catch him up, while Voeckler opted to try to follow Contador and Schleck alone. By the top of the first climb, the Col du Télégraphe, Contador and Schleck had passed most of the first breakaway group, and in passing the col second behind Gorka Izagirre, Schleck became virtual leader of the mountains classification on the last day that points were available in that competition.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
The climb to the Col du Galibier saw the front group reduced to four men: Contador, Schleck, Rui Costa and Christophe Riblon; Samuel Sánchez counter-attacked to join the group on the descent, while Voeckler dropped to the pursuit group that included the other leading riders in the general classification. The advantage of the leaders over the chase group dropped from its maximum of nearly two minutes to 42 seconds by the top of the Galibier, by which time Voeckler had been dropped to a third group.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
The chase group caught up with the leaders by the bottom of the valley, and the larger group was also joined by the yellow jersey group before the beginning of the climb to Alpe d'Huez. Ryder Hesjedal and Pierre Rolland had attacked along the valley, and led by some 38 seconds at the beginning of the climb. Attacks at the foot of the climb by Jakob Fuglsang, and then by Evans and Bauke Mollema, were unable to escape the group, but Contador was again able to break clear.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
When he caught Rolland and Hesjedal, the Canadian immediately fell away, while Rolland was able to stay with Contador for some time. The following group gradually diminished in numbers, and Voeckler dropped back, eventually finishing in 20th place. Shortly after Contador moved clear into the lead on his own, with 10 km (6 mi) remaining, Peter Velits and Sánchez broke from the pursuit group. Sánchez caught up with Rolland, and the pair drew closer to Contador, while the two favourites for the general classification, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans, rode in close proximity.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 19
Sánchez and Rolland caught up with the rapidly tiring Contador with 2.5 km (2 mi) remaining, and Rolland immediately attacked and went on to win the stage and take the lead in the young riders' competition. The two Spaniards worked together for a while, before Sánchez, in an effort that was to secure him the polka-dot jersey of the top climber, moved on to take second place. Despite a flurry of late attacks, Evans and both Schleck brothers finished on the same time. Andy Schleck assumed leadership of the overall classification. As had happened on the previous stage, more than half the field had to rely on a reprieve from the commissionaires having missed the cut-off time, but the penalty points made little difference to the green jersey competition as the two leaders in that classification both received the same sanction.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 20
In the final competitive stage of the race, riders left in reverse order of their standings in the general classification. Fabian Cancellara, the world champion at the time trial, was widely considered favourite to win the stage, and his time was the fastest for some time, but it was surpassed by Richie Porte and, shortly after, by Thomas De Gendt, before Tony Martin set the best time at every intermediate checkpoint, and at the stage finish, times which remained unbeaten.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 20
Pierre Rolland, although he lost his place in the top ten to Jean-Christophe Péraud, was able to retain his lead in the young riders' category ahead of Rein Taaramäe. Defending champion Alberto Contador, in posting the time which was second at the time, moved up one place in the overall rankings, before the final three riders, whose compared times were to be decisive in the final positions for the tour.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 20
It was widely expected that the 57 second advantage that Andy Schleck had over Cadel Evans at the beginning of the stage would leave the pair very closely matched, but even by the first checkpoint in seemed evident that Evans would more than make up the deficit. Evans beat Contador's time, to take second on the stage, and to pass both Andy and Fränk Schleck and assume the lead in the overall classification.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 21
After a silent tribute to Laurent Fignon and the victims of the attacks in Oslo and Utøya Island, and in keeping with tradition, the final stage began at a slow pace, and was a largely ceremonial procession through the suburbs of Paris. Shortly after the riders reached the circuit in the centre of the city, racing began in earnest, and after various unsuccessful attempts, the main break was initiated by Ben Swift (Team Sky) with 40 km to go, and he was joined by Kristjan Koren (Liquigas–Cannondale), Sergio Paulinho (Team RadioShack), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Lars Bak (HTC–Highroad).


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 21
At the intermediate sprint, with 35 km remaining, Mark Cavendish (HTC–Highroad) extended his lead in the points competition, and shortly after that the breakaway reached its greatest advantage at 45 seconds. As the peloton closed down their advantage, mainly through the work of Quick-Step and Lampre–ISD, the breakaway lost members, until in the final kilometre only Bak remained clear, but the closing peloton was being driven by his own team.


2011 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stage 21
The lead-out train for Cavendish led the race through the final corners, and he won the final stage for the third successive year, a record, to become the first British winner of the green jersey. The leaders of the other three categories finished in the peloton to secure their victories, and the traditional prize-giving was made shortly after the race.


2011 Tour de Langkawi
The 2011 Tour de Langkawi was the 16th edition of the Tour de Langkawi, a cycling stage race that took place in Malaysia. It began on 23 January in Dataran Lang, Langkawi and ended on 1 February in Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. The race was sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as a 2.HC (hors category) race on the 2010–11 UCI Asia Tour calendar.


2011 Tour de Langkawi
Venezuela's Jonathan Monsalve won the race followed by Colombian cyclist, Libardo Niño second and Italian cyclist Emanuele Sella third. Italian cyclist, Andrea Guardini won the points classification and Jonathan Monsalve became the King of the Mountains of the race. Tabriz Petrochemical Team led the teams classification of the race.


2011 Tour de Langkawi, Teams
23 teams accepted invitations to participate in the 2011 Tour de Langkawi.


2011 Tour de Langkawi, Stages
The cyclists competed in 10 stages, covering a distance of 1,315.4 kilometres.


2011 Tour de Luxembourg
The 2011 Tour de Luxembourg cycling race  was the 71st running of the Tour de Luxembourg. It was won by Linus Gerdemann from Germany, a member of the Luxembourg-based team, Leopard Trek. Gerdemann became in doing so the first German to ever win the Tour de Luxembourg.


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages
Key: : Leader and eventual winner of General Classification, based on total time. : Leader and eventual winner of points classification, based on points given for finishing position on each mass start stage. : Leader and eventual winner of climbers' classification, based on points gained on passing hilltops. : Leader and eventual winner of young riders' classification, based on total time, but restricted to riders under 25 at beginning of year.


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages, Prologue
1 June 2011 — Luxembourg, 2.7 km (1.7 mi) (ITT)


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages, Stage 1
2 June 2011 – Luxembourg to Bascharage, 192.8 km (119.8 mi)


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages, Stage 2
3 June 2011 – Schifflange to Differdange, 200.7 km (124.7 mi)


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages, Stage 3
4 June 2011 – Eschweiler to Roost (Luxlait), 185.0 km (115.0 mi)


2011 Tour de Luxembourg, Stages, Stage 4
5 June 2011 – Mersch to Luxembourg, 152.1 km (94.5 mi)


2011 Tour de Picardie
The 2011 Tour de Picardie was the 65th edition of the Tour de Picardie cycling stage race. It started on 13 May in Abbeville and ended on 15 May in Peronne and consisted of three stages.


2011 Tour de Picardie
The race was won by Team Vacansoleil-DCM rider Romain Feillu, who claimed the leader's yellow and blue jersey after a strong finish on the 3rd stage. Feillu' winning margin over runner-up Kenny De Haes of Omega Pharma-Lotto was 8 seconds, and Katusha's Filippo Pozzato completed the podium, 8 seconds down on Feillu.


2011 Tour de Picardie
In the race's other classifications, Omega-Pharma Lotto rider Kenny de Haes won the points classification's green jersey. Bretagne-Schuller rider Johan Lethe King of the Mountains classification, with Saur-Sojasun finishing at the head of the teams classification.


2011 Tour de Picardie, Pre-race favourites
The winner of the 2010 Tour de Picardie, Ben Swift, was not looking to defend last year's victory because of his racing at the 2010 Tour of California, while other pre-race favourites like 3 stage winner of Tour Méditerranéen winner, Romain Feillu, as well as Kenny Dehaeswho was 5th at 2008.


2011 Tour de Pologne
The 2011 Tour de Pologne was the 68th running of the Tour de Pologne cycling stage race. It started on 31 July in Pruszków and finished on 6 August in Kraków. It was the 19th race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.


2011 Tour de Pologne
The lead of the race changed hands in the final stage of the event. Garmin–Cervélo rider, and defending race winner, Dan Martin, who took the overall lead after a stage victory on the penultimate stage, had an advantage of three seconds to his nearest challengers Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale and Vacansoleil–DCM's Marco Marcato. Sagan had held the lead prior to Martin, having won the fourth and fifth stages, but lost his advantage after losing time in the closing metres of stage six, after an attack by Martin and Wout Poels, another Vacansoleil–DCM rider.


2011 Tour de Pologne
On the final stage, Sagan and Marcato moved closer to Martin at the intermediate sprint – offering time bonuses to the top three riders – by taking second and third behind Martin's team-mate Heinrich Haussler, with the winner of the Tour to be decided at the finish in Kraków. Despite missing out on the stage victory – taken by Skil–Shimano's Marcel Kittel, who took his fourth stage victory of the week – Sagan finished just behind in second place, and with a time bonus of six seconds, he overhauled Martin by five seconds. Marcato finished fifth on the stage to seal his third place in the general classification, two seconds behind Martin and seven behind Sagan.


2011 Tour de Pologne
In the race's other classifications, Vacansoleil–DCM rider Michał Gołaś won the King of the Mountains classification, Sagan won the points classification, Adrian Kurek of Team Poland BGŻ finished clear at the top of the sprints classification, with Vacansoleil–DCM also finishing at the head of the teams classification.


2011 Tour de Pologne, Schedule
Aside from entering the Czech Republic (to the city of Český Těšín on the border with Poland) during the fourth stage, the race stages started and ended in Polish locations.


2011 Tour de Pologne, Teams
The 18 teams from the UCI World Tour were automatically invited to this edition of the Tour de Pologne.


2011 Tour de Pologne, Teams
4 teams were also awarded a wildcard place into the event:


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 1
31 July 2011 – Pruszków to Warsaw, 101.5 km (63.1 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
1 August 2011 – Częstochowa to Dąbrowa Górnicza, 162 km (101 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
2 August 2011 – Będzin to Katowice, 135.7 km (84.3 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
3 August 2011 – Oświęcim to Cieszyn, 176.9 km (109.9 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
4 August 2011 – Zakopane to Zakopane, 201.5 km (125.2 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
5 August 2011 – Terma Bukowina Tatrzańska to Bukowina Tatrzańska, 207.7 km (129.1 mi)


2011 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
6 August 2011 – Kraków to Kraków, 128.0 km (79.5 mi)


2011 Tour de Romandie
The 2011 Tour de Romandie, was the 65th running of the Tour de Romandie cycling stage race. It started on 26 April in Martigny and ended on 1 May in Geneva and consisted of six stages, including a race-commencing prologue stage and also a penultimate day individual time trial. It was the 13th race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.


2011 Tour de Romandie
The race was won by BMC Racing Team rider Cadel Evans, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey for the second time – having previously won the race in 2006 – with an eighth-place finish on the penultimate time trial stage, and held his advantage to the end of the race. Evans' winning margin over runner-up Tony Martin was 18 seconds, and Astana's Alexander Vinokourov completed the podium, 19 seconds down on Evans.


2011 Tour de Romandie
In the race's other classifications, Saxo Bank–SunGard rider Chris Anker Sørensen won the King of the Mountains classification, Matthias Brändle of Geox–TMC won the green jersey for the sprints classification, Garmin–Cervélo's Andrew Talansky won the young rider classification, with Garmin–Cervélo also finishing at the head of the teams classification.


2011 Tour de Romandie, Pre-race favourites
Pre -race favourites include the 2006 winner, Cadel Evans, 2009 winner, Roman Kreuziger and the 2010 winner Simon Špilak. Beside them there will be Ivan Basso, Paris-Nice's winner, Tony Martin and Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez.


2011 Tour de San Luis
The 2011 Tour de San Luis is the 5th edition of the stage race Tour de San Luis. It forms part of the 2010–2011 UCI America Tour.


2011 Tour de San Luis
The tour was won by Marco Arriagada riding for the Chile national team. The previous edition was won by Vincenzo Nibali, from Liquigas–Doimo, who came ahead of José Serpa, from Androni Giocattoli.


2011 Tour de San Luis, Teams
Twenty one teams are invited to the 2011 Tour de San Luis


2011 Tour de Suisse
The 2011 Tour de Suisse was the 75th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It started on 11 June with an individual time trial in Lugano and ended with another individual time trial on 19 June, in Schaffhausen. It was the 16th race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.


2011 Tour de Suisse
Just like the previous edition of the race won by Fränk Schleck, the lead of the race changed hands in the final time trial stage. Lampre–ISD rider Damiano Cunego, who had held the lead of the race since stage three, had an advantage of over 90 seconds to his nearest challenger Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank, but it was Team RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer, who had been fourth prior to the final stage and almost two minutes in arrears of Cunego, that took the final overall honours.


2011 Tour de Suisse
Leipheimer, who was only third on the stage behind Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) and team-mate Andreas Klöden, triumphed by four seconds over Cunego after 1,246.4 kilometres (774.5 miles) of racing. Kruijswijk managed to hold on to third place in the overall classification, 62 seconds down on Leipheimer, but eight seconds ahead of another Leopard Trek rider, Jakob Fuglsang.


2011 Tour de Suisse
In the race's other classifications, Leopard Trek rider Andy Schleck won the King of the Mountains classification, Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan won the points classification after placing five times in the top three of stage results, Lloyd Mondory of Ag2r–La Mondiale finished clear at the top of the sprints classification, with Leopard Trek also finishing at the head of the teams classification.


2011 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
Rabobank's Bauke Mollema, who was placed second overall at the time, punctured about 15 km from the finish. When the Leopard Trek team heard it, they led the chase, and Mollema was unable to get back to the group, and he finished 48 seconds behind. Rabobank assistant directeur sportif Frans Maassen said that Mollema should have had a chance to win the stage.


2011 Tour de Wallonie
The 2011 Tour de Wallonie was the 38th edition of the Tour de Wallonie cycle race and was held on 23–27 July 2011. The race started in Amay and finished in Thuin. The race was won by Greg Van Avermaet.


2011 Tour de las Américas
The 2011 Tour de las Américas season consisted of 17 golf tournaments, hosted in seven countries across Latin America. Five events were played in Argentina, five in Colombia, three in Chile and one in Mexico, Peru, Paraguay and Brazil.


2011 Tour de las Américas
The Tour de las Américas continued its close association with the European Tour, with three events being co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, Europe's official development tour.


2011 Tour de las Américas
The Order of Merit was won by Argentina's Joaquín Estévez.


2011 Tour du Haut Var
The 2011 Tour du Haut Var was the 43rd edition of the Tour du Haut Var cycling stage race. It was being held 19–20 February 2011 in the French department of the Var, and was rated as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Teams and cyclists
There were 18 teams in the 2011 Tour du Haut Var. Among them were five UCI ProTeams, nine UCI Professional Continental teams, and four Continental teams. Each team was allowed eight riders on their squad, giving the event a peloton of 142 cyclists at its outset.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Classification leadership
In the 2011 Tour du Haut Var, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the Tour du Haut Var, and the winner is considered the winner of the Tour.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Classification leadership
Additionally, there was a youth classification, which awarded a white jersey. It is calculated in the same way as the general classification, but is only open to riders born in 1988 or later.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Classification leadership
There was also a mountains classification, which awarded a red jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a mountain before other cyclists. Each climb was categorized, with the more difficult climbs awarding more points.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Classification leadership
The points classification awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points based on the order at the finish line of each stage. The stage win afforded 25 points, second on the stage was worth 20, third 16, fourth 13, fifth 10, sixth 8, seventh 6, eighth 4, ninth 2, and tenth was worth a single point. The points awarded in the sprints classification counted equivalently for this classification. In addition, points were awarded for the intermediate sprints, with 6, 4 and 2 points rewarded to, respectively, the first, second and third-place winners of the intermediate sprints.


2011 Tour du Haut Var, Classification leadership
The race also awarded a teams classification, which, too, was not represented by a jersey. The teams classification was calculated by adding the times of each team's best three riders per stage per day.


2011 Tour of Austria
The 2011 Tour of Austria (German: 2011 Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) was the 63rd edition of the Tour of Austria, an annual bicycle race. Departing from Dornbirn on July 3, it concluded in Vienna on July 10. The 1136.9 km long stage race was part of the 2010–2011 UCI Europe Tour, and was rated as a 2.HC event. Fredrik Kessiakoff of Astana won the general classification, his first title, and the first Swede to do so since 1957.


2011 Tour of Austria, Teams
18 teams were invited to participate in the tour: 8 UCI ProTeams, 6 UCI Professional Continental Teams and 4 UCI Continental Teams.


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 1
3 July 2011 – Dornbirn to Götzis, 139.7 km (86.8 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 2
4 July 2011 – Innsbruck to Kitzbühel, 158.3 km (98.4 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 3
5 July 2011 – Kitzbühel to Prägraten am Großvenediger, 174.5 km (108.4 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 4
6 July 2011 – Matrei in Osttirol to Sankt Johann im Pongau/Alpendorf, 199.3 km (123.8 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 5
7 July 2011 – Sankt Johann im Pongau/Alpendorf to Schladming, 157.2 km (97.7 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 6
8 July 2011 – Hainburg an der Donau to Bruck an der Leitha, 155.0 km (96.3 mi)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 7
9 July 2011 – Podersdorf am See to Podersdorf am See, 30.1 km (18.7 mi) individual time trial (ITT)


2011 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 8
10 July 2011 – Podersdorf am See to Vienna, 122.8 km (76.3 mi)


2011 Tour of Azerbaijan (Iran)
Tour of Azerbaijan 2011 is the 26th round of Tour of Iran (Azerbaijan), which took between 13 May and 18 May 2011 in Iranian Azerbaijan. The tour had 6 stages in which Mehdi Sohrabi from Iran won in first place in over all classification of the tour.


2011 Tour of Beijing
The 2011 Tour of Beijing was the inaugural running of the Tour of Beijing cycling stage race. It started with an individual time trial around the Beijing Olympic Village on 5 October and finished at the Bird's Nest on 9 October.


2011 Tour of Beijing
The race covered 614.3 kilometres (381.7 mi) across Beijing over five stages, and was the first race to be owned by Global Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, a move which raised some controversy. It was the 25th race of the UCI World Tour season.


2011 Tour of Beijing
The race was won by HTC–Highroad rider Tony Martin, after winning the opening time trial stage and maintaining his advantage to the end of the race. Martin's winning margin over runner-up David Millar of Garmin–Cervélo was 17 seconds, and Team Sky's Chris Froome completed the podium, 9 seconds behind Millar and 26 seconds down on Martin. In the race's other classifications, Denis Galimzyanov of Team Katusha won the points classification, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Igor Antón won the mountains classification, Ben King finished on top of the young rider classification, with Team Sky topping the teams classification.


2011 Tour of Beijing, Teams
As the race was held under the auspices of the UCI World Tour, all eighteen ProTour teams were invited automatically. Together with a selection of Chinese riders forming the Chinese National Cycling Team this formed the event's 19-team peloton.


2011 Tour of Beijing, Stages, Stage 1
5 October 2011 – Bird's Nest to Water Cube, 11.3 km (7.0 mi)


2011 Tour of Beijing, Stages, Stage 2
6 October 2011 – Bird's Nest to MenTouGou, 133.5 km (83.0 mi)


2011 Tour of Beijing, Stages, Stage 3
7 October 2011 – MenTouGou to YongNing Town, 162.0 km (100.7 mi)


2011 Tour of Beijing, Stages, Stage 4
8 October 2011 – YanQing Gui Chuan Square to Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, 189.5 km (117.7 mi)


2011 Tour of Beijing, Stages, Stage 5
9 October 2011 – Tiananmen Square to Bird's Nest, 118.0 km (73.3 mi)


2011 Tour of Belgium
The 2011 Tour of Belgium is the 81st edition of the Tour of Belgium cycling stage race. It takes place from 25 May to 29 May 2011 in Belgium. The race is part of the UCI Europe Tour. It begins with a short prologue in Buggenhout, followed by four longer stages, ultimately finishing in Putte.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Teams
Twenty-one teams have been invited to the 2011 Tour of Belgium: 7 teams are from the UCI ProTeams, 7 are UCI Professional Continental Teams and 7 are UCI Continental Teams.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Prologue
25 May 2011 – Buggenhout (Belgium), 5.6 km (3.5 mi)


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Prologue
With only 7 turns in the course, the short prologue in Buggenhout was not technical and favored more powerful riders. One of these riders is André Greipel, who set the first strong mark at 6' 45" as one of the first riders. Surprisingly, the first rider to beat his time was his young teammate Jens Debusschere, who stayed in the lead for quite a long time. Eventually Sebastian Langeveld beat the time of Debusschere and from that point on, with the winds turning, a few more riders managed to come close to the time of Langeveld.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Prologue
Eventually Langevelds compatriot Lieuwe Westra beat his time by a mere four seconds to take the stage win and the first black jersey. The Belgian spectators were delighted to see Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert riding good times, both finishing in the top 10 after a period of absence following the spring classics.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 1
26 May 2011 – Lochristi (Belgium) to Knokke-Heist (Belgium), 162.5 km (101.0 mi)


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 1
The stage started with one minute of silence in remembrance of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt, a former stage winner during the Tour of Belgium who died two weeks earlier as a result of a crash during the 2011 Giro d'Italia.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 1
With around 60 kilometres to go and strong winds picking up as the peloton got closer to the North Sea, the Quick-Step team pulled the peloton apart by using the drafting technique, as such creating an elite group. Notable absentees in this group were leader in the race Lieuwe Westra, two time Tour of Belgium winner Stijn Devolder and classics specialist Filippo Pozzato who would finish several minutes back in one of the dropped groups. The elite group sprinted for the victory in Knokke-Heist, with André Greipel taking the stage win and due to the bonification seconds he also became the new leader.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 2
27 May 2011 – Knokke-Heist (Belgium) to Ypres (Belgium), 187.8 km (116.7 mi)


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 2
Just a few kilometres into the stage, five riders broke away from the peloton: Koen Barbé, Marcus Burghardt, Niko Eeckhout, Jens Mouris and Luca Paolini. The breakaway group got a lead of up to four minutes, but was caught just after the second climb of the Kemmelberg by Philippe Gilbert. Soon after, about 20 other riders also closed the gap, while Gilbert had managed to win the last intermediate sprint of the day, which gave him enough time bonus to overtake his teammate André Greipel in the standings.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 2
The lead group increased to almost 60 riders and with the finish line coming closer it was hard for anyone to get away from the pack. A late solo breakaway by Jelle Wallays was ended just 2 kilometres from the finish and the group sprinted for the stage win. In the sprint, Tom Boonen and Allan Davis came up strongly to the front but faded early, allowing Aidis Kruopis to overtake them in the final metres and book the biggest win of his young career. André Greipel lost both the black jersey for the overall lead and the yellow jersey of the points classification, respectively to Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen.


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 3
28 May 2011 – Bertem (Belgium) to Eupen (Belgium), 202 km (126 mi)


2011 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 4
29 May 2011 – Oreye (Belgium) to Putte (Belgium), 169.4 km (105.3 mi)


2011 Tour of Britain
The 2011 Tour of Britain was the eighth running of the latest incarnation of the Tour of Britain and the 72nd British tour in total. The race started on 11 September in Peebles, Scotland and finished on 18 September in London, England, with the race also visiting Wales for one stage.


2011 Tour of Britain
The race consisted of eight stages – down from the original itinerary of nine stages due to bad weather – and included the Tour's first individual time trial since 2007, as part of two stages on the race's final day, with a criterium to finish the race. The race was held as part of the 2010–2011 UCI Europe Tour, and was categorised by the UCI as a 2.1 category race.


2011 Tour of Britain
The race was won by Rabobank rider Lars Boom, who claimed the leader's gold jersey after two stage victories, as well as a strong finish on the individual time trial stage. Boom maintained his advantage to the end of the race, with a winning margin over runner-up Team Sky's Steve Cummings of 36 seconds, and Team NetApp's Jan Bárta completed the podium, 19 seconds behind Cummings and 55 seconds down on Boom.


2011 Tour of Britain
In the race's other classifications, Team Sky's Geraint Thomas won the points classification, An Post–Sean Kelly rider Pieter Ghyllebert led the sprints classification from start to finish and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke took home the polka-dot jersey for Rapha Condor–Sharp, as he finished at the top of the mountains classification. As well as Thomas' points victory, Team Sky finished on top of the teams classification.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 1
A pair of riders – An Post–Sean Kelly's Pieter Ghyllebert and Sigma Sport–Specialized's Russell Hampton – made the early breakaway from the field, locking out the top two placings at each of the three intermediate sprint points and the three categorised climbs during the stage. Ghyllebert finished first at the sprints, and thus took the race's first sprints jersey, while Hampton earned the polka-dot jersey for heading the mountains classification, and also earned the award for the day's most combative rider. The breakaway, which had an advantage of six minutes over the field at one point during the stage, was caught with around 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining, which would ultimately set up a sprint finish in Dumfries.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 1
HTC–Highroad, Rabobank and Team Sky moved their riders towards the front of the field, to win the sprint for the line and the ten-second time bonus available for the first rider to complete the stage. As it was, HTC–Highroad were the strongest in the closing stages and Mark Renshaw led Mark Cavendish – only racing in the Tour with special dispensation from the Union Cycliste Internationale after his stage 4 exit from the Vuelta a España – out to claim the stage victory, his first in the race since 2007. The stage victory gave Cavendish the lead in the general classification, and also the points classification, from points gained at the finish. Renshaw finished just behind Cavendish, with Rabobank's Theo Bos completing the top three placings.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 2
Prior to the start of the stage, race organisers cancelled the stage on police advice due to high winds in Northern England, as Hurricane Katia, now a post-tropical cyclone hit the country.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 3
Although not as prominent as the previous day, windy conditions caused problems for the riders during the stage, with the field being split into several groups, behind a trio of breakaway riders. UnitedHealthcare's Boy Van Poppel, An Post–Sean Kelly's Andrew Fenn, and the mountains classification leader Russell Hampton of Sigma Sport–Specialized formed the day's breakaway, and they accelerated away from the field to a maximum advantage of over three minutes. The lead trio also took the maximum points from the first two intermediate sprints and the second category climb at Ramshorn.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 3
They stayed ahead of the field – and were later joined by Rapha Condor–Sharp rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke – until just after Gun Hill, where Team Sky, HTC–Highroad and Rabobank advanced some of their riders into an echelon of 27 riders. After advancing all six of their riders into the echelon, Team Sky sent one of their riders on the attack with around 15 km (9.3 mi) remaining on the stage.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 3
The newly crowned British time trial champion Alex Dowsett attempted to take a solo victory for the second time in a few weeks, after a similar performance at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes a couple weeks prior to the Tour of Britain. Dowsett was caught within the final 2 km (1.2 mi) of the stage, which allowed several teams to launch mini-attacks on their rivals, in an attempt to break them.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 3
Ultimately, it was the Rabobank duo Michael Matthews and Lars Boom that set up the sprint akin to the sprint that Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish accomplished for HTC–Highroad in Dumfries in Stage 1. Boom won the stage ahead of Matthews, with Geraint Thomas best of the rest in third for Team Sky, ahead of team-mate Steve Cummings and Cavendish. Boom's win – coupled with bonus seconds on the finish and intermediate sprints – enabled him to take the general classification lead from Cavendish by three seconds.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 4
Just like the previous day's stage, a trio of riders went away from the field to form the day's breakaway. Rapha Condor–Sharp's Kristian House, Endura Racing's Jack Bauer, and the sprints classification leader Pieter Ghyllebert of An Post–Sean Kelly formed the breakaway, and they accelerated away from the field to a maximum advantage of almost six minutes. The lead trio also took the maximum points from all three intermediate sprints – a result that boosted Ghyllebert's lead in the sprints classification – and the first two categorised climbs of the day, at Llyswen Hill and over the first category climb at the Brecon Beacons.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 4
The field steadily brought back the breakaway, and by the foot of the final climb of the day coming at Caerphilly mountain with just 5 km (3.1 mi) remaining, the field was all back together again. The climb split the field apart so much so, that only 22 riders were in contention of winning the stage at Caerphilly Castle. The world road race champion, Thor Hushovd, was set up for the sprint by Garmin–Cervélo team-mate Julian Dean, and proceeded to take the stage victory.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 4
Lars Boom, the race leader, finished behind Hushovd, and ahead of Cesare Benedetti, Ian Bibby and Boy Van Poppel. Boom extended his lead in the general classification, thanks to his time bonus of six seconds on the finish line, and also assumed the lead of the points classification from Mark Cavendish.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 5
After several mini-attacks in the early running of the stage, it was not until around 40 km (24.9 mi) into the stage that the breakaway developed. The breakaway had been instigated by Rapha Condor–Sharp rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke at the foot of the first climb at Haytor Rocks, and would eventually swell to a total of thirteen riders, who held a maximum advantage of almost six minutes. Tiernan-Locke, as well as winning maximum points at Haytor Rocks, claimed both of the second category climbs that were held later on the stage. As a result of his points on the day, he assumed the lead of the mountains classification from Sigma Sport–Specialized's Russell Hampton, who had held the lead of the classification since the opening stage in Scotland.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 5
The field brought back the breakaway quickly, although there was a counter-attack from the break, with Damien Gaudin of Team Europcar going off the front with 25 km (15.5 mi) remaining. Gaudin's bid for victory was eventually stunted within the closing 3 km (1.9 mi) of the stage. HTC–Highroad made their presence at the front of the field, in a bid to repeat their victory on Stage 1 with Mark Cavendish.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 5
However, Cavendish decided not to fully sprint for the line to allow Mark Renshaw – a rider who has led out Cavendish to many of his victories over their time at the team – to take the stage victory. Cavendish led the rest of the field over the line, ahead of Robert Förster, Geraint Thomas and Andrew Fenn. Rabobank's Lars Boom maintained his twelve-second lead in the general classification over Thomas, who took the lead of the points classification from Boom.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 6
Four riders made up the day's breakaway – Team Sky's Ben Swift, An Post–Sean Kelly's Mark McNally, Paul Voss of Endura Racing and Lars Bak for the HTC–Highroad team – but none of the quartet were in great contention to take any of the jerseys during the stage. The day's first intermediate sprint, coming at 20 km (12.4 mi) into the stage, saw several riders fall while contesting the sprint; most notably points classification leader Geraint Thomas and Ian Bibby of Motorpoint Pro– Cycling Team, with the latter forced to abandon the race due to a broken collarbone.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 6
The sprint itself was won by race leader Lars Boom, putting another three seconds onto his overall lead, prior to the breakaway move, who held station off the front until the closing 25 km (15.5 mi) of the stage, when 17 other riders bridged the gap to them, and provided for a reduced field sprint finish. Boom was the strongest rider in the remaining riders, and comfortably took the stage win, extending his general classification lead to 28 seconds over Team NetApp's Leopold König, who finished third on the stage. Boom also regained the points classification lead from the delayed Thomas.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 7
The breakaway was the key to the day's stage, having made an escape from the field after just 5.5 km (3.4 mi), and ultimately held an advantage of almost 90 seconds all the way to the end of the stage.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 7
Six riders from six different teams – Gediminas Bagdonas of An Post–Sean Kelly, Ian Wilkinson of Endura Racing, Team Europcar's Mathieu Claude, Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator's Stijn Neirynck, and riding for British continental teams Team Raleigh and Sigma Sport–Specialized, Richard Handley and Wouter Sybrandy – were left to fight for the victory themselves, with Rabobank ending a pursuit to catch them with around 30 km (18.6 mi) remaining, instead deciding to protect their leader Lars Boom and his lead overall.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 7
Bagdonas ultimately took the stage win ahead of Wilkinson, Claude and Neirynck, as Boom maintained his lead of 28 seconds in the general classification over Team NetApp's Leopold König, ahead of the final day's split-stages. Boom and König both finished in the pack led home by Mark Cavendish, 83 seconds behind Bagdonas.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8a
The first of the final day's pair of stages was a short circuit through London, around Whitehall and the Thames Embankment, measuring 8.8 km (5.5 mi). The early benchmark was set by the second rider out on the course, Rick Flens of Rabobank, with a time of 10' 41" that stood well against the majority of the early runners, and was not bettered until Endura Racing's Alexander Wetterhall, the former Swedish national time trial champion, broke the timing beam with a time of 10' 33". Just like Flens before him, Wetterhall's time also managed to give him the best time for a while, and it was not until Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil–DCM that Wetterhall was displaced from the top spot.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8a
Westra's time of 10' 19" remained unchallenged for another fifteen minutes – riders outside the top ten in the general classification left the start at one-minute intervals – until Team Sky's Alex Dowsett went round the course some five seconds quicker than Westra did. Dowsett's time was ultimately good enough for the stage victory, for his first victory in the race.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8a
As the top ten took to the course in two-minute intervals, it was Dowsett's team-mate Steve Cummings that made up the most ground on time, as he finished nine seconds off Dowsett's time, a result that would lift him from fifth place to second place in the general classification. Despite Cummings' position gain, he lost four seconds to race leader Lars Boom, as he finished the course marginally quicker than Westra, to claim second place on the stage.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8b
The race's final stage was held over the same circuit as the individual time trial that had taken place hours before, with ten laps of the circuit making up the stage distance of 88 km (54.7 mi).


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8b
As had been the case in many of the week's stage, a rider from the An Post–Sean Kelly team made their way into the stage breakaway, with Ronan McLaughlin latterly joined by Rapha Condor–Sharp rider Kristian House towards the end of the first lap of the circuit, but their advantage never exceeded more than 40 seconds as Rabobank and HTC–Highroad looked to keep the gap at a minimum in preparation for the finish.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8b
After starting the stage in dry conditions, rain started to fall towards the end of the eighth lap of the race, providing the race's 79 remaining riders with an added danger in the closing stages. House attacked off McLaughlin on the final lap, but was eventually swallowed up by the main field prior to the bunch sprint at the finish.


2011 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8b
Robert Förster of UnitedHealthcare led the sprint out ahead of Mark Renshaw and Geraint Thomas, but it was Mark Cavendish, who turned into the final straight in fifth position, who took the stage victory ahead of Renshaw – HTC–Highroad's third one-two finish of the Tour – and allowed Cavendish to head to the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark on a high. Lars Boom finished in the main field to seal the race victory, and he became the first Dutch rider to win the Tour of Britain. Despite his overall victory, Boom surrendered the victory in the points classification on the finish to Thomas, after his fourth place on the stage behind Cavendish, Renshaw and Förster.


2011 Tour of California
The 2011 Amgen Tour of California was the sixth running of the Tour of California cycling stage race. It was held from May 15–22, and was rated as a 2.HC event on the UCI America Tour. Originally scheduled for eight stages, the race was due to begin in South Lake Tahoe, but snow around the Lake Tahoe area led to stage 1 being delayed, shortened and ultimately cancelled. The race concluded in Thousand Oaks as planned.


2011 Tour of California
The race was won by Team RadioShack rider Chris Horner, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey with a victory on the event's fourth stage, and held his advantage to the end of the race. Horner's winning margin over teammate and runner-up Levi Leipheimer was 38 seconds, and Garmin–Cervélo's Tom Danielson completed the podium, 2 minutes and 7 seconds behind Leipheimer and 2 minutes and 45 seconds behind Horner. The comfortable margin that Horner and Leipheimer had over the field was due in part from a 1–2 performance on the event's queen stage where they finished over 40 seconds clear of the next placed rider.


2011 Tour of California
In the race's other classifications, SpiderTech–C10 rider Pat McCarty won the King of the Mountains classification, Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale won the green jersey for the sprints classification, HTC–Highroad's Tejay van Garderen won the young rider classification, with Garmin–Cervélo finishing at the head of the teams classification.


2011 Tour of California, Participating teams
Nineteen teams were due to participate in the Tour of California, but the Movistar Continental Team declined the invitation from organizers, leaving 18 teams to start. These included nine UCI ProTeams, four UCI Professional Continental teams, and five UCI Continental teams. Fourteen of those teams had participated in the 2010 Tour of California. Each team was allowed to begin with 8 riders, and thus the race began with 144 riders. The teams were:


2011 Tour of California, Participating teams
The Movistar Continental Team, from Colombia, later leaked that it had turned the invitation down because Tour organizers had refused to cover its airfare to attend, which the organizers do for ProTeams. In response, Tour organizer AEG Sports noted that it was required under UCI rules only to cover lodging and meal costs for professional teams at the race and agreed to cover airfare costs for ProTeams only because "[t]heir attendance is vital to the success of the race."


2011 Tour of California, Participating teams
For the second straight year, the race conflicted with the Giro d'Italia, which caused a number of top cyclists to miss the race, while other Tour de France contenders continued to view California, along with either the Tour of Switzerland or the Critérium du Dauphiné (both in June), as better preparation for the July race. Nevertheless, the starting field included almost all of the American stars, such as three-time champion Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack, his teammate Chris Horner, three-time runner-up David Zabriskie of Garmin–Cervélo, and his teammate Christian Vande Velde. Several rising American stars also started the event, such as Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney of BMC Racing Team – joining George Hincapie in the team – and Tejay van Garderen of HTC–Highroad.


2011 Tour of California, Participating teams
International riders like Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck also entered the event, with the new-for-2011 Leopard Trek outfit. Leopard Trek's commitment to the race came despite the team's departure from the Giro d'Italia after the death of Wouter Weylandt days before the Tour of California commenced. Other top international riders included Rabobank's Laurens ten Dam, Garmin–Cervélo's Ryder Hesjedal, and Rory Sutherland of UnitedHealthcare.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
May 15, 2011 — South Lake Tahoe to North Lake Tahoe, 118.7 miles (191.0 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
After last year's opening stage which was suited to the out-and-out sprinters, the first stage of the 2011 Tour was expected to be a high-altitude road race stage in the Sierra Mountains around Lake Tahoe, not dipping below 6,200 feet (1,900 m) and peaking over 7,000 feet (2,100 m) with the categorized climbs of Spooner Junction and Brockway Summit. Two climbs of Emerald Bay were also included in the route along with sprints in Tahoe City and back at South Lake Tahoe after passing back into California from Nevada; the first time that the Tour had ventured outside of its home state.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
However, the weather ultimately decided the fate of the stage, after forecasts in the week running up to the stage called for a large snowstorm to hit Lake Tahoe on the day of the stage. The forecast came to fruition on race day, and with contingency plans in place, the stage was delayed and reduced from its original 118.7 miles (191.0 km) distance to 47.74 miles (76.83 km). Minutes prior to the stage start, it was cancelled due to the riders refusing to ride in poor weather conditions. Team RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer stated that the riders did not feel comfortable riding in such conditions, citing the death of Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt on the third stage of the Giro d'Italia as a factor in their decision.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
May 16, 2011 — Nevada City to Sacramento, 76.3 miles (122.8 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
Stage 2 was scheduled to begin at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort, go over the 7,000 feet (2,100 m) peak of the Donner Pass, and then descend to the California State Capitol building in Sacramento on largely the same route as the opening stage of the 2010 Tour, which resulted in a sprint for victory, won by Team HTC–Columbia's Mark Cavendish. Just like last year, the expectation was for the race to finish in a sprint for the line.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
However, as a result of the continuing snowy conditions around Lake Tahoe, the organizers moved the start of the stage to Nevada City, where last year's Tour began. That reduced the length of the stage to 76.3 miles (122.8 km) from 133.2 miles (214.4 km), and moved the start back two hours, from 10:15 a.m. PDT to 12:15 p.m. PDT. As well as the reduction of the overall stage length, two laps of the circuit in Sacramento were added to the one that was already scheduled. With the stage being revised, only the stage finish carried points towards the points classification as well as time bonuses towards the general classification.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
Three riders established the early breakaway; Jamey Driscoll of Jamis–Sutter Home, Timon Seubert of Team NetApp and László Bodrogi of Team Type 1–Sanofi Aventis were later joined by Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes as they extended their margin to peloton to over five minutes at one point. However, their advantage was steadily cut after that, and the quartet were eventually caught as the field entered the outskirts of Sacramento, Jacques-Maynes the last to hold off the pack with around 8 miles (13 km) to the finish.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
HTC–Highroad and Saxo Bank–SunGard headed the field as they entered the short finishing circuit, but with rain starting to fall, Team Sky came to the front to assume control for Ben Swift. Swift was favored instead of the team's regular sprinter Greg Henderson, who had not raced since the Scheldeprijs in early April, but Henderson was utilized as the leadout man for Swift, and released him to his fifth victory of 2011, securing the first yellow and green jerseys of the race.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
Liquigas–Cannondale also pushed towards the front during the final circuit in a bid to push Peter Sagan up the order for the run to the line, and Sagan ended the sprint second with Goss third for HTC–Highroad, after mistiming his sprint. Sagan took the white jersey as the best placed under-23 rider, while Driscoll was named the most courageous rider of the day.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
May 17, 2011 — Auburn to Modesto, 121.9 miles (196.2 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
With no King of the Mountains passes scheduled for the stage despite its slightly undulating nature – descending from 1,400 feet (430 m) to just above sea level, via a few hills along the way – the expectation was for the sprinters to prevail on the day, as Francesco Chicchi had done so in 2010 when the fourth stage ended in Modesto. Although believing that a sprint finish was the most likely occurrence, Team RadioShack's Chris Horner stated that the stage could be the first opportunity for a breakaway to succeed in Modesto, and that cross winds could also factor into the day's conditions and could split the field.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
As he had done the previous day, Jamis–Sutter Home rider Jamey Driscoll made the breakaway along with six other riders mainly representing American-registered teams, with the exception of Jan Bárta of Team NetApp as they quickly formed an advantage within the first minutes of the stage. The breakaway claimed all the intermediate sprints as their advantage extended up to a maximum of 6' 40". With 13 miles (21 km), the cross winds that Horner had mentioned occurred, with pressure on the front Team Sky, they broke the field into echelons for a time.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
The acceleration caught out many riders, including the likes of Garmin–Cervélo's Thor Hushovd and Leopard Trek's Andy Schleck, but both rejoined when the wind turned to their advantage. Horner himself had trouble towards the end of the stage, after a coming together with Liquigas–Cannondale sprinter Peter Sagan, which formed him to complete the stage on his teammate Markel Irizar's bike after a bike change, but finished with the main field.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
As the race headed into Modesto, HTC–Highroad and Liquigas–Cannondale took turns at the front in the hope of preventing a late-race attack, and to help with the eventually sprint for the line after two circuits. Once on the circuit, SpiderTech–C10 then upped their pace for their sprinter Keven Lacombe, who had finished fourth in Sacramento. In the bunch, Jens Voigt, Will Dugan and Andreas Schillinger fell but all remounted and completed the stage. Saxo Bank–SunGard and Team Sky moved up to the front, with the latter gaining a similar team position as what had occurred the previous day.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
As the field moved inside the final kilometer, Saxo Bank–SunGard lost a man from the front after Baden Cooke fell, with fellow Australians Michael Matthews of Rabobank and Matthew Goss of HTC–Highroad also falling. At the front, Greg Henderson led the sprint out, but Ben Swift was not in a position to challenge for the sprint, so it was left to Henderson to bring home the laurels for Team Sky, winning the sprint by a bike length. Saxo Bank–SunGard's Juan José Haedo finished second ahead of Hushovd, Sagan and Goss' teammate Leigh Howard.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
With their respective stage wins and time bonuses, Henderson and Swift were left tied on the same time, and with the same stage finishes – a win and an eleventh place – Henderson was given the yellow jersey on countback as the most recent stage winner. Sagan assumed the green jersey from Swift with his second top-five stage finish, to go with his white jersey, while Barta claimed the most courageous rider of the day honors.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
May 18, 2011 — Livermore to San Jose, 81.8 miles (131.6 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
After two sprinter-friendly stages, the fourth stage culminated in the Tour's first mountain-top finish. With five King of the Mountains passes packed into the stage's 81.8 miles (131.6 km) distance, the expectation for the stage was for the riders with strengths in the mountains as well as the general classification contenders to do battle for stage victory. Three of the climbs occurred on the San Antonio Valley Road, including the hors catégorie Mount Hamilton, before the finish on the Sierra Road.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
A ten-man breakaway formed as the race was leaving Livermore, again composed mainly of the domestic teams but three riders from the World Tour teams – Martin Pedersen representing Leopard Trek, Lars Boom of Rabobank and Garmin–Cervélo's Thor Hushovd – also made it into the breakaway, extending an advantage of three minutes before the first climb on Mines Road.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
Boom took maximum points on the climb, as the breakaway swamped up the points for Mines Road, as well as the next two prior to Mount Hamilton, when the breakaway dwindled with Bissell rider Patrick Vennell being the last of the escapees to be caught, midway up Mount Hamilton. SpiderTech–C10's Pat McCarty managed to best a quartet of Team RadioShack riders to secure maximum points on the climb, before dropping back into the pack and it was left to Team RadioShack to pace it on the descent.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
On the descent, Hushovd's teammate Ryder Hesjedal attacked and made headway from the group and was later joined by Rabobank's Paul Martens as they put almost a minute on the pack before Martens overshot a corner and lost time to Hesjedal, who in turn waited for his return prior to the final climb up Sierra Road.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
Hesjedal again attacked at the bottom of the climb and this time, Martens could not keep his pace and was swamped up by the group. Team RadioShack duo Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner upped their pace in the chasers, and soon went off in pursuit of Hesjedal, catching him with 2 miles (3.2 km) remaining on the climb, but Horner accelerated once again, leaving Leipheimer and Hesjedal behind.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
A four-man group – Tom Danielson of Garmin–Cervélo, Andy Schleck of Leopard Trek, HTC–Highroad's Tejay van Garderen as well as UnitedHealthcare's Rory Sutherland – then pulled up to the duo ahead and they would contest for the minor placings, with the exception of van Garderen, who was overhauled by five more riders in the closing stages. Horner soloed to his first Tour of California stage victory, and with previous jersey holder Greg Henderson losing over fifteen minutes to Horner, the yellow jersey to go with it.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
Schleck bested Sutherland and Leipheimer for second place on the stage, with Danielson seven seconds in arrears in fifth. McCarty took the first red jersey for the mountains classification on countback from Leipheimer, Peter Sagan remained the wearer of the green jersey as there were no sprint points on offer in the stage, Andrew Talansky took the young rider classification lead from Sagan, and Hesjedal was given the most courageous rider honors.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
May 19, 2011 — Seaside to Paso Robles, 135.1 miles (217.4 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
Late winter storms forced tour organizers to reroute the stage, and as such, the stage utilized the majority of the route used on the fourth stage of the 2008 Tour. On that day, the race also began in Seaside before heading to the stage finish in San Luis Obispo where the stage was won by Dominique Rollin after soloing from 12.5 miles (20.1 km) out. A hilly stage with four categorized climbs and two intermediary sprints, expectations were for a breakaway to succeed or for a large group to contest a sprint for victory.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
After an early break by four riders consisting of Rabobank's Óscar Freire, Team Sky's Chris Froome, Dan Martin of Garmin–Cervélo as well as the customary member of a domestic team, with Bissell rider Chris Baldwin being their representative in the early breakaway. Another seven riders later joined the group to create an 11-man move that eventually extended their advantage in excess of three minutes.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
Again, the King of the Mountains points were taken by the breakaway, with Pat McCarty of SpiderTech–C10 extending his lead prior to Saturday's stage on Mount Baldy as no points were on offer during the individual time trial in Solvang. At the top of the final climb, Freire and Leopard Trek's Stefan Denifl attacked from the break and managed to put a gap on them of around 30 seconds. The duo remained together until around 10 miles (16 km) to go, when Denifl punctured and crashed, and it was left to Freire to bid for victory on his own.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
The remnants of the breakaway were caught 6.5 miles (10.5 km) outside Paso Robles, while Freire remained well over a minute clear of the pack. This gap steadily came down with many teams pushing the pace up to help advance their sprinters, including Liquigas–Cannondale and HTC–Highroad for Peter Sagan, Leigh Howard and Matthew Goss respectively. The high pace of the peloton meant that when Freire was caught with 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to go, the field split into several groups. Freire was given most courageous rider of the day for his exploits.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
Bissell's Jeremy Vennell then attacked but was caught within the final kilometer. Team Sky then placed themselves on the front with Mathew Hayman and Greg Henderson looking to lead out Ben Swift, but Howard gained an advantage on them before Sagan usurped them both to claim his third Tour win, after two in 2010. Howard bested Swift for second place, as only 45 of the 133 riders that finished the stage were given Sagan's time for the stage. Chris Horner retained the yellow jersey ahead of Solvang, Sagan remained in green, while Andrew Talansky dropped enough time during the stage to lose the white jersey lead to HTC-Highroad rider Tejay van Garderen.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
May 20, 2011 — Solvang, 15 miles (24 km) (individual time trial) (ITT)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
The Solvang time trial returned to the Tour for its 2011 edition, after the trial was held in downtown Los Angeles in 2010. Levi Leipheimer was tipped by Team RadioShack teammate Chris Horner to be the favorite for the stage, having won in Solvang in each of the three occasions that it has featured on the Tour, en route to an overall victory each time. Another name mentioned by Horner as a rider who could challenge Leipheimer was Garmin–Cervélo's David Zabriskie, who won a time trial three weeks prior to the Tour, during the Tour de Romandie.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
The early pace was set by William Dickeson of Jelly Belly–Kenda, who went round the course in 32' 53", but was usurped by his teammate Bernard van Ulden by half a minute. Rabobank's Lars Boom had been quicker than van Ulden at the intermediate split but lost time over the second half of the course. Ian Stannard of Team Sky was the next rider to top the timesheets, setting a time of 32' 07 ", as the team looked for their third win of the Tour.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
Stannard held his lead for over half an hour, as he fended off American national time trial champion Taylor Phinney of BMC Racing Team, before losing his lead to a former national time trial champion, the New Zealand rider from Bissell, Jeremy Vennell. Vennell recorded a time of 31' 34", which was eventually good enough to remain inside the top ten. His lead was short-lived as Rabobank took the lead with rider Maarten Tjallingii, who set a time ten seconds quicker.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
Tjallingii's time held to inside the last 40 riders, when Peter Velits (HTC–Highroad) trimmed a solitary second off his time and moved into the top spot for the time being, but Garmin–Cervélo's David Zabriskie rewrote the Solvang record books, recording a time of 30' 35" which was good enough to give him the stage win. Youth classification leader Tejay van Garderen, a former top-5 placer on two time trial stages at the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné, got closest to Zabriskie for a time, but was still some 40 seconds in arrear of his fellow American.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
This performance was enough to give him the honors for the most courageous rider of the day. Stage favorite Leipheimer managed to record a quicker split time than Zabriskie, but like many other riders, fell away during the second part of the stage and fell 14 seconds down on him but was good enough for second on the stage. Horner maintained his general classification lead with a sixth-place finish on the stage, losing around half of his lead, but still holding an advantage of 38 seconds.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
May 21, 2011 — Claremont to Mount Baldy, 74.9 mi (120.5 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
The queen stage of the 2011 Tour saw the riders presented with three climbs in excess of 3,000 feet (910 m), as well as an intermediate sprint in Glendora. The first climb of the day, the Glendora Ridge Road, comes after 11.5 miles (18.5 km), having negotiated a climb of a mile in length. After the sprint in Glendora, the riders will then negotiate the Glendora Mountain Road climb, a distance of 8.5 miles (13.7 km) being used in full for the first time since 2004. After a gradual uphill climb, the riders hit the slopes of Mount Baldy. 3.5 miles (5.6 km) at a gradient of 8.9% could decide the general classification for one rider at the Tour's first high-mountain finish.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
Early breakaways formed within the first 6 miles (9.7 km) of the stage, with up to nine riders advancing ahead of the main field at any one point, including former general classification leader Ben Swift of Team Sky and mountains leader Pat McCarty of SpiderTech–C10. After Swift departed back from the break, Garmin–Cervélo brought one of their top-ten overall riders into the break, Ryder Hesjedal, to join Andrew Talansky in order to pressurize Team RadioShack who were still in the main pack.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
McCarty took maximum points on both Glendora Ridge Road and Glendora Mountain Road, to mathematically ensure he would win the mountains classification by reaching the finish in Thousand Oaks, but was dropped by the break who had never been able to get far enough of the pack, the gap keeping around two minutes.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
The pack itself had dwindled to around 20 riders prior to the hors catégorie climb of Mount Baldy, with Team RadioShack still on the front with Matthew Busche and Ben King pacing the field in the hopes of advancing Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer up the climb and after the break. Andy Schleck and Laurens ten Dam followed closely in the wheels of their rivals, as the quintet looked to close down the gap to Talansky, Liquigas–Cannondale's Francesco Bellotti and Team Novo Nordisk's Alexander Efimkin, which was now under a minute.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 7
With 2 miles (3.2 km) to go, Busche attacked and only Leipheimer and Horner could advance with him and when their leadout man pulled off, they set off after the leading trio and swamped them up inside the final 1.5 miles (2.4 km). Horner and Leipheimer rode together for the remainder of the climb and finished hand-in-hand with Horner giving Leipheimer the stage win, his first road stage victory in the Tour. Ten Dam was third, 43 seconds behind the American duo, as he moved into sixth in the general classification, while Garmin-Cervélo's Tom Danielson moved into third place overall after a fourth-place stage finish.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
May 22, 2011 — Santa Clarita to Thousand Oaks, 82.3 miles (132.4 km)


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
Rather than an out-and-out circuit race to finish the event as what occurred in 2010, the final stage of the Tour saw a gradual descent from the start in Santa Clarita, before the final classified climb of the event at Balcom Canyon. Prior to the finishing circuit in Thousand Oaks, riders also had to navigate the Norwegian Grade climb, after the Moorpark sprint. Once in the finishing circuit, the riders completed five full laps of around 5 miles (8.0 km) in length. Expectations were for either the sprinters to take victory, or a breakaway to succeed but not to an extent to adjust the final overall classification.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
Just like many of the other stages, the American domestic teams had a great presence within the early breakaways which resulted in four riders – Bradley White of UnitedHealthcare, Jan Bárta of Team NetApp, José Fernando Antogna of Jamis–Sutter Home and Mike Friedman of Kelly Benefit Strategies–OptumHealth – heading clear after around 20 miles (32 km).


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
The breakaway extended out to a maximum of three minutes, and took a clean sweep of the points at the Balcom Canyon climb and the two intermediate sprints in Moorpark and the first pass through the finish line prior to the completion of the five circuits to end the race.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
The gap to the four leaders slowly dwindled, and with 18 miles (29 km) to go, Rabobank's Maarten Tjallingii and Leopard Trek's Martin Mortensen escaped from the field and set off in chase of the lead quartet, riding for almost 8 miles (13 km) until they caught the remnants of the breakaway; White had already slid back as would Antogna and Friedman, leaving Barta to partner Tjallingii and Mortensen.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
As the field completed the circuits, the lead that the trio out front had was diminishing by the kilometer, and with two laps to go, the gap stood at just 30 seconds. Within the next 6 miles (9.7 km), they were pulled back by the peloton's strong pace, mainly set by the sprinter teams again, consisting of HTC–Highroad, Liquigas–Cannondale, Saxo Bank–SunGard and Team Sky.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
Once the breakaway was caught, Saxo Bank–SunGard took to the front in the hope of setting up Juan José Haedo for a stage win that had eluded during the week and were joined by Team Sky, who were hoping to get their third stage win of the week, with Ben Swift looking to bookend the stages having won the first-run stage – Stage 2 – of the week in Sacramento. Bernhard Eisel made a mistake in the closing stages which compromised the run-in for HTC-Highroad, leaving the honors to Leigh Howard to pace Matthew Goss for the sprint.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
Points classification leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) was also helped towards the front by Daniel Oss, as he looked to secure the classification for the second successive year. However, Howard timed his run at the appropriate moment, and released Goss with 180 meters to go, and Goss fended off Sagan to take the team's only win of the week. Sagan's second place comfortably confirmed his green jersey for the sprints, while Greg Henderson took third for Team Sky.


2011 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 8
In the pack, Team RadioShack were untroubled during the day and Chris Horner sealed the overall classification with a 65th place stage finish, ahead of teammate Levi Leipheimer. Tejay van Garderen and Pat McCarty completed the stage to claim the young riders classification and mountains classification respectively, while Barta earned his second "Most Courageous" award of the race.


2011 Tour of California, Women's invitational individual time trial
May 20, 2011 — Solvang, 15 miles (24 km) (individual time trial) (ITT)


2011 Tour of California, Women's invitational individual time trial
In conjunction with Stage 6 in Solvang on Friday, May 20, the Tour of California also held a women's invitational individual time trial on the same course. Ultimately, 13 riders competed, including three former world time trial champions in Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben of the U.S. and Emma Pooley of the U.K.  Armstrong edged Neben by 13 seconds to win the race.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
In the 2011 Tour of California, five different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding the finishing times of the stages per cyclist, the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the Tour of California, and the winner of the general classification was considered the winner of the Tour of California.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
Additionally, there was also a sprints classification, akin to what is called the points classification in other races, which awarded a green jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 10 in a stage. The winner received 15 points, second place 12, third 10, fourth 7, and one point less per place down the line, to a single point for tenth. In addition, some points were able to be won in intermediate sprints.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
There was also a mountains classification, which awarded a red jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a mountain before other cyclists. Each climb was categorized, either hors-, first-, second-, third-, or fourth-category, with more points available for the harder climbs.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
There was also a youth classification. This classification was calculated in the same way as the general classification, but only young cyclists (under 23) were included. The leader of the young rider classification received a white jersey.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
The fifth jersey was not awarded on the basis of a time or points-based classification. It was for each stage's "Most Courageous" rider, akin to the combativity award in the Tour de France. The rider who received this award was given a blue jersey on the podium, but wore his regular jersey (unless holding one of the above four) in the next stage, and could be recognized from his back number: marked with a white number on a red background instead of the usual black on white. Unlike the Tour de France's combativity award, there was no overall award given.


2011 Tour of California, Classification leadership
There was also a classification for teams. In this classification, the times of the best three cyclists per stage were added, and the team with the lowest time were classified as the leader of the classification.


2011 Tour of Chongming Island Stage race
The 2011 Tour of Chongming Island Stage race was the fifth women's edition of the Tour of Chongming Island cycling stage race. It was rated by the UCI as category 2.1, and was held between 11 and 13 May 2011, in China.


2011 Tour of Flanders
The 2011 Tour of Flanders cycle race was the 95th edition of this monumental classic and took place on 3 April. The course was 256.3 kilometres (159.3 mi) long and was held between Bruges and Ninove. The race was won by Nick Nuyens ahead of Sylvain Chavanel and Fabian Cancellara.


2011 Tour of Flanders for Women
The eighth Tour of Flanders for Women was held on 3 April 2011 and was won by Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten. It was the second leg of the 2011 UCI Women's Road World Cup. The race started in Oudenaarde and finished in Meerbeke for the last time, over a distance of 129.9 kilometres (80.7 miles).


2011 Tour of Flanders for Women, Race Summary
On the Eikenberg, only 25 riders remained in the main peloton. After 85 km Sarah Düster broke away and was later joined by Ludivine Henrion. Düster and Henrion gained up to three minutes on the peloton, in which Emma Pooley led the pursuit. Düster broke clear on the Muur van Geraardsbergen but was caught at two kilometers from the finish. Tatiana Antoshina attacked in the final kilometers, but was countered by Annemiek van Vleuten who easily beat Antoshina in a two-up sprint. Marianne Vos won the sprint for third place.


2011 Tour of Norway
The 2011 Glava Tour of Norway was the first edition of the Glava Tour of Norway cycle race. It formed part of the 2011 UCI Europe Tour.


2011 Tour of Oman
The 2011 Tour of Oman is the second edition of the Tour of Oman cycling stage race. It is rated as a 2.1 event on the UCI Asia Tour, and held from 15 February to 20 February 2011, in Oman.


2011 Tour of Oman, Teams
Sixteen teams will compete in the 2011 Tour of Oman. These will include ten UCI ProTour teams, five UCI Professional Continental teams, and one Continental team. The teams participating in the race are:


2011 Tour of Qatar
The 2011 Tour of Qatar was the tenth edition of the Tour of Qatar cycling stage race. It was rated as a 2.1 event on the UCI Asia Tour, and was held from 6 February to 11 February 2011, in Qatar. The previous race was won by Wouter Mol of Vacansoleil.


2011 Tour of Qatar, Teams
Sixteen teams competed in the 2011 Tour of Qatar. These included ten UCI ProTour teams, five UCI Professional Continental teams, and one Continental team. Each team entered a squad of eight riders, giving the Tour a peloton of 158 riders. The teams participating in the race were:


2011 Tour of Qatar, Stages, Prologue
Traditionally time trials are ridden on bicycles made specifically for these events. However, being as this was the only time trial in the tour - and a short one - the teams were not allowed to bring time trial bikes and helmets. Lars Boom won the short 2.5 km time trial, edging world champion Fabian Cancellara by 4 seconds.


2011 Tour of Qatar, Classification leadership
In the 2011 Tour of Qatar, three different jerseys are 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 each stage and in intermediate sprints, the leader receives a golden jersey. This classification is considered the most important of the Tour of Qatar, and the winner is considered the winner of the Tour.


2011 Tour of Qatar, Classification leadership
Additionally, there is a points classification, which awards a silver jersey. In the points classification, cyclists get points for finishing in the top three in an intermediate sprint or the top twenty of a stage. The first in an intermediate sprint gets 3 points, second 2, and third a single point. The stage win affords 30 points, second is worth 27 points, 25 for third, 23 for fourth, 21 for fifth, 19 for sixth, 17 for seventh, 15 for eighth, 13 for ninth, 11 for tenth, and one point less per place down the line, to a single point for twentieth.


2011 Tour of Qatar, Classification leadership
There is also a youth classification, which awards a blue jersey. This classification is calculated the same as the general classification, but only riders born on or after January 1, 1986, are eligible.


2011 Tour of Qatar, Classification leadership
The race also awards a teams classification, which is not represented by a jersey. The teams classification is calculated by adding the times of each team's best three riders per stage per day.


2011 Tour of Turkey
The 2011 Tour of Turkey is the 47th edition of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey cycling stage race. It is being held from 24 April–1 May 2011, and is rated as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. The last edition was won by ISD–NERI's rider Giovanni Visconti. Also Turkish 2 cycling teams, Manisaspor and Konya Şekerspor debuted in this race.


2011 Tour of Turkey, Teams and cyclists
There were 22 teams in the 2011 Tour of Turkey. Among them were 6 UCI ProTeams, 14 UCI Professional Continental teams, and 2 Continental teams. Each team was allowed eight riders on their squad, giving the event a peloton of 176 cyclists at its outset. The biggest names which compete here are Tyler Farrar, André Greipel, Alessandro Petacchi and Sandy Casar.


2011 Tour of Utah
The 2011 Tour of Utah was the eighth edition of the Tour of Utah. For the first time, the race was included on the UCI America Tour, with a classification of 2.1. As such, the race is only open to teams on the UCI Pro Tour, UCI Professional Continental and UCI Continental circuits. The race took place between August 9–14, 2011 as a six-day, six-stage race, similar to the prior two years. The race joined the 2011 Tour of California and the 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge as the only three UCI-ranked stage races in the United States


2011 Tour of Utah, Teams
After receiving UCI status, the race confirmed that three ProTeams will compete in the 2011 Tour: Team RadioShack, HTC–Highroad and BMC Racing Team. Later, two more ProTeams, Garmin–Cervélo and Liquigas–Cannondale, entered the race, making for a total of five ProTeams, including all four of the US-based ProTeams. Also appearing will be four UCI Professional Continental teams and seven UCI Continental teams, making a total of 16 teams that will be sending either 6 or 8 riders per team to the event for a total of 120 riders.


2011 Tour of Utah, Teams
Trek-Livestrong U23, the North American developmental team of Team RadioShack, was originally scheduled to compete but was bumped by all the additions of higher-ranked UCI Continental teams. Of the teams competing, only six of the teams had competed in the 2010 Tour of Utah (not counting the partial participation by two members of Team RadioShack in 2010).