The 2011 Tour de France was the 98th edition of the race. It started on 2 July at the Passage du Gois and ended on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 24 July. The cyclists competed in 21 stages over 23 days, covering a distance of . The route entered Italy for part of two stages. The emphasis of the route was on the Alps, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the mountain range first being visited in the Tour. Cadel Evans of the won the overall general classification. Andy Schleck of was second, with his brother and teammate Fränk third.
The general classification leader's yellow jersey was worn first by Philippe Gilbert of , who won the opening stage. In the following stage, 's victory in the team time trial put their rider Thor Hushovd into the overall lead. He held the yellow jersey until the end of the ninth stage when it was taken by Thomas Voeckler (), who went on to hold it throughout the stages in the Pyrenees and up until the end of the final Alpine stage. Andy Schleck, who had won the previous stage (the 18th), held it for the following individual time trial; Evans took enough time in this stage to take the yellow jersey. He then held the lead into the finish in Paris.
The race saw Yohann Gène become the first black rider in the history of the Tour. Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour, and the second non-European to have officially done so. At 34, he was also the oldest post-World War II winner being almost a year older than Joop Zoetemelk was when he won the 1980 edition. 's Mark Cavendish was the first British winner of the points classification, Samuel Sánchez () won the mountains classification and Pierre Rolland of won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by and the overall super-combativity award was given to Jérémy Roy ().
Teams
Twenty-two teams participated in the 2011 edition of the Tour de France. The race was the 17th of the 27 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI ProTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 19 January 2011, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations, all of which were French-based. One team, the Spanish-based , which included the third-placed rider in the 2010 Tour, Denis Menchov, and the 2008 Tour winner, Carlos Sastre, was overlooked. The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place in front of audience of 7,000 inside the Roman amphitheatre at the Puy du Fou theme park in Les Epesses, Vendée, on 30 June, two days before the opening stage.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 198 riders. Of these, 49 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders came from 30 countries; France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and United States all had 12 or more riders in the race. Riders from ten countries won stages during the race; British riders won the largest number of stages, with five. The average age of riders in the race was 29.38 years, ranging from the 21-year-old Anthony Delaplace () to the 39-year-old Jens Voigt (). Of the total average ages, was the youngest team and the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
UCI ProTeams
UCI Professional Continental teams
Pre-race favourites
In the lead-up to the Tour, Alberto Contador (), winner of the 2007 and 2009 Tours, was widely considered as the top pre-race favourite for the general classification. His closest rivals were thought to be Andy Schleck () and Cadel Evans (). The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Bradley Wiggins (), Ivan Basso (), Robert Gesink (), Samuel Sánchez (), Chris Horner (), Fränk Schleck () and Jurgen Van den Broeck ().
In September 2010, Contador announced that he had tested positive for the banned clenbuterol from a sample taken during his now-disqualified 2010 Tour victory. He was suspended from racing during an investigation until February 2011. When cleared to race he competed in and won the general classifications of the Vuelta a Murcia, Volta a Catalunya and Giro d'Italia before the Tour. With overall victory in the Tour he was aiming to complete the Giro-Tour double, last achieved by Marco Pantani in the 1998 Tour. Schleck had placed second to Contador in the previous two Tours and won the young rider classification in the previous three. In the lead up to the Tour his best results were third in the one-day race Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the mountains classification of the Tour de Suisse. Evans, podium finisher in the 2007 and 2008 Tours, had a successful season before the Tour, winning the general classifications of both the Tour de Romandie and Tirreno–Adriatico, as well as second place in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
The sprinters named as the "riders to watch" by Bicycling magazine and possible contenders for the points classification and wins on the flat or hilly bunch sprint finishes were Mark Cavendish (), Philippe Gilbert () and riders Tyler Farrar and Thor Hushovd. Former winners of the points classification and notable sprinters included in the startlist were the defending champion, Alessandro Petacchi (), and the winner in 2007, Tom Boonen (). The points classification winner of the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Tours, 39-year-old Robbie McEwen, was not selected by his team for the race, . Óscar Freire of was another former winner (2008) left out of his team's Tour squad.
Cavendish was runner-up in the 2010 Tour's points classification and had won 15 stages in the three previous Tours; he had won a stage at the Tour of Oman, the one-day race Scheldeprijs and two stages at the Giro during the 2011 season prior to the Tour. Gilbert had amassed a total of eleven wins (not including the national championships) for the season before the Tour, including three spring classics: Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. Farrar's form in the lead-up to the Tour included a stage win in both Tirreno–Adriatico and the Ster ZLM Toer. Hushovd, the world road race champion, only had one win in the season before the Tour, a stage of the Tour de Suisse. Petacchi's best results prior the Tour were a trio of stages in the Giro, the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour of Turkey. The major victory of Boonen's season up to the Tour was the Gent–Wevelgem one-day race.
Route and stages
On 26 January 2010, the race director, Christian Prudhomme, announced that the department of Vendée would host the 2011 edition's opening stage (known as the Grand Départ). It was the fifth time Vendée had hosted the Grand Départ, which consisted of two stages. The entire route was announced by the ASO on 19 October 2010 at the official presentation at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The route was thought to suit climbing specialists, with Prudhomme saying "We wanted a balanced route. We tried to keep the suspense for the Alps but also to have a big battle as early as the Pyrenees,". To celebrate the centenary of the introduction of the Alps into the Tour it featured two of its most famous climbs, the Col du Galibier and Alpe d'Huez, with the Galibier climbed twice.
The first of the two stages held in Vendée started in Passage du Gois and finished in Mont des Alouettes, whilst stage two was held in Les Essarts. The Tour left Vendée in Olonne-sur-Mer and headed north to Redon for the finish of the third stage. The following two stages took place in the region of Brittany. Stage six left the region to the finish in Lisieux. Stages seven and eight took the race through the middle of the country from Le Mans to the Super Besse resort in the elevated region Massif Central, which hosted stage nine. The following two stages headed south through the lower slopes, and stage twelve took the race into the Pyrenees. The mountain range hosted the next two stages. The fifteenth stage took place between Limoux and Montpellier. Stage sixteen took the route into the Alps. The next two stages took the race into Italy, with Pinerolo hosting between them. Stage nineteen was the last in the Alps, before the twentieth, which was held in the foothills around Grenoble. A long transfer took the Tour to its conclusion in Paris with the Champs-Élysées stage.
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of , shorter than the 2010 Tour. For only the second time since the 1967 Tour, the race started with a mass-start stage instead of a prologue (an individual time trial under ), the last occasion being in 2008. The longest mass-start stage was the seventh at , and stage 21 was the shortest at . The race featured only of time trialling, with stage two's team time trial and stage twenty's individual time trial. Of the remaining stages, ten were officially classified as flat, three as medium mountain and six as high mountain. There were four summit finishes: stage 12, to Luz Ardiden; stage 14, to Plateau de Beille; stage 18, to Col du Galibier; and stage 19, to Alpe d'Huez. It was the first time a stage had finished on the -high Galibier. It was the highest summit finish in Tour history, beating the finish of the -high Col du Granon during the 1986 Tour. The highest point of elevation in the race was the -high Col Agnel mountain pass on stage 18. It was among nine hors catégorie (English: beyond category) rated climbs in the race. There were fifteen new stage start or finish locations. The rest days were after stage 9, at the Le Lioran mountain resort, and after 15, in the department of Drôme.
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 12 July Passage du Gois to Mont des Alouettes Flat stage 23 July Les Essarts Team time trial 34 July Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon Flat stage 45 July Lorient to Mûr-de-Bretagne Flat stage 56 July Carhaix to Cap Fréhel Flat stage 67 July Dinan to Lisieux Flat stage 78 July Le Mans to Châteauroux Flat stage 89 July Aigurande to Super Besse Medium mountain stage 910 July Issoire to Saint-Flour Medium mountain stage 11 July Le Lioran Rest day 1012 July Aurillac to Carmaux Flat stage 1113 July Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur Flat stage 1214 July Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden High mountain stage 1315 July Pau to Lourdes High mountain stage 1416 July Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille High mountain stage 1517 July Limoux to Montpellier Flat stage 18 July Drôme Rest day 1619 July Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Gap Medium mountain stage 1720 July Gap to Pinerolo (Italy) High mountain stage 1821 July Pinerolo (Italy) to Col du Galibier High mountain stage 1922 July Modane to Alpe d'Huez High mountain stage 2023 July Grenoble Individual time trial 2124 July Créteil to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Flat stage Total
Race overview
Grand Départ and Massif Central
The opening stage's uphill finish of Mont des Alouettes was won by Philippe Gilbert, who took the first yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. He also led the points and mountains classifications. were the fastest in the team time trial on the second stage, four seconds ahead of second-placed . This put Garmin's Thor Hushovd, who was third in stage one, into the yellow jersey. Tyler Farrar won the third stage from a bunch finish. José Joaquín Rojas of , third on the stage, took points classification's green jersey. The following day, a five-rider breakaway group had led the stage after , before the peloton caught on them at the foot of the Mûr-de-Bretagne climb. After a series of attacks, a group of nine riders moved clear, and Cadel Evans won the subsequent sprint finish. Evans took the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification. Mark Cavendish won stage five from a bunch sprint, with second-placed Gilbert taking the green jersey. The sixth stage was won by 's Edvald Boasson Hagen, who won the hilly bunch sprint in Lisieux. Johnny Hoogerland () took the polka dot jersey.