2011 Garmin–Cervélo season Manager Jonathan Vaughters One-day victories 7Though listed on this article as a victory, no results from the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca are officially counted by the UCI Stage race overall victories 1 Stage race stage victories 18 Previous season • Next season
The 2011 season for the cycling team began in January at the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Noosa Grand Prix. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
For 2011, the team added Cervélo as a major co-sponsor, after they had, for two seasons, fronted their own professional team, the . Seven riders from Cervélo TestTeam joined Garmin-Cervélo for 2011, perhaps chief among them reigning world champion Thor Hushovd.
The team took 26 victories in 2011, 25 of which officially count. After having raced the Tour de France for the last three years without any victories, they took four stage wins and the team award at the 2011 Tour. Also a first for the team, they held the yellow jersey for a week with Hushovd. They also placed a rider in the top ten overall – Tom Danielson in ninth. They also took stage wins at both of the season's other Grand Tours, though their Giro d'Italia was marred by the death of Wouter Weylandt, a close friend of Garmin-Cervélo rider Tyler Farrar.
Garmin-Cervélo had wins in each month of the season and with 11 different riders, in addition to a team time trial at the Tour de France. Shortly after the team's lone stage race overall win of the year, the season-opening Tour Down Under, the board of directors fired Matt White, who had been a member of the team's management since 2008, for reasons relating to medical treatment of a former rider.
2011 roster Ages as of January 1, 2011.
Riders who joined the team for the 2011 season Rider2010 teamHeinrich HausslerThor HushovdAndreas KlierRoger HammondBrett LancasterChristophe Le MévelDaniel LloydRamūnas Navardauskasneo-proGabriel RaschAndrew Talanskyex-pro (, 2009)Sep Vanmarcke
Riders who left the team during or after the 2010 season Rider2011 teamKirk CarlsenTeam ChipotleSteven CozzaTeam NetAppTimothy DugganRobert HunterFredrik KessiakoffTrent LoweNo professional contractLowe, as well as Hunter and Tuft, initially signed with the Australian project known as Pegasus Racing, but that team folded in the offseason after it was unable to secure a UCI license of any kind.Christian MeierDanny PateSvein TuftRicardo van der VeldeDonckers Koffie-Jelly Belly
One-day races Before the spring season and the races known as classics, the team was active in the Vuelta a Mallorca series of one-day races. Farrar won the first, the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca, after a field sprint, but this result does not count in the UCI's official records. Beginning with the 2011 season, the UCI has banned race radios from all 1.HC, 2.HC, and below events, having previously banned them at 1.2, 2.2, and national events in 2010 (bans for World Tour races are planned for 2012). The ban is extremely unpopular among teams and riders. Since the Vuelta a Mallorca is a series of 1.1 races, it is covered by the ban. However, prior to the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca, most of the riders in the race signed in wearing radios anyway, in defiance of the ban, and refused to remove them, in protest both of the ban itself and of the UCI making major decisions without the teams' input. Consequently, the UCI's commissaires refused to officiate the race and declared its results moot. The next day, Farrar won the Trofeo Cala Millor without controversy, edging 's John Degenkolb in a depleted group sprint. The riders did not protest nor strike, deciding against doing so in the best interests of the race organizers after the UCI threatened to cancel the race altogether if they did. The squad was also victorious in the final Vuelta a Mallorca race, the Trofeo Magaluf-Palmanova. Though the course, with five categorized climbs, suggested a breakaway winner, Fischer took the team's ninth victory of the season from a 20-rider sprint finish.
Spring classics The team was active at the traditional Belgian opener, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Maaskant figured into a 12-man breakaway that formed as the morning's initial break was caught. Sebastian Langeveld and Juan Antonio Flecha went on to decide the race among themselves, with Maaskant finishing seventh 90 seconds back. Farrar just missed out on the podium at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne. He took fourth in the field sprint finish.
At the first monument race of the season, Milan–San Remo, the team was thought to be one of the top favorites. They had three potential candidates for victory in Hushovd, Farrar, and Haussler, all of whom had shown good form during the season and Farrar and Haussler had race wins to their credit. They admitted that they each envisioned different scenarios which would lead to their respective potential victories, possibly complicating things for the team, but they remained committed to riding as a team. Each was separately viewed by analysts or fellow riders as a favorite for the day, as well. The race played out differently from these expectations. On the Le Manie climb, from the finish, Hushovd crashed from roughly the middle of the peloton, leading to the race effectively being split in two. The crash also cost Hushovd one of his wheels. While teammate Vansummeren obligingly offered the world champion one of his, Hushovd stated after the race that the crash ended his chances at victory, since he could not pedal at full strength due to a hip injury. Farrar was also caught behind this split, but Haussler was able to make the selection. He had his choice leadout man Klier with him, but he was unable to make the day's final split on the Poggio, finishing the race in 18th place 27 seconds behind the eight-rider group who contested the win. After the race, team manager Vaughters admitted that the race had not gone to plan, and attributed Haussler not making the selection on the Poggio to a lack of endurance stemming from not having ridden a Grand Tour or any single-day race of this length in nearly two full seasons. Vaughters also stated that this race made for a good example of why it is usually folly to designate a leader in advance of a single-day race, since nearly anything can happen on any given day.
Farrar, Haussler, and Hushovd drew frequent mention as pre-race favorites and contenders at events like Dwars door Vlaanderen, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, and Gent–Wevelgem. While the team had solid high placings at each of these races, they missed out on winning any of them. At Dwars door Vlaanderen, two riders finished ahead of the fast-charging reduced peloton to decide the race themselves. Nick Nuyens and Geraint Thomas had no measurable time gap over the field, but held on for first and second places. Farrar won the sprint from the 30-man peloton, but it was not for the victory, instead merely to round out the podium in third place. Fabian Cancellara took a dominant win at the E3, finishing a minute clear of the next group on the road. Vanmarcke was part of that second group, narrowly missing out in the sprint for the remaining podium places to take fourth overall. Farrar was again third at Gent–Wevelgem, finishing behind Tom Boonen and Daniele Bennati in a hectic reduced sprint. In April, Hesjedal took fourth behind Samuel Sánchez at the GP Miguel Indurain.
Garmin-Cervélo was again touted as a strong team for the season's second monument, the Tour of Flanders, with Hushovd perhaps seen as the strongest of the team's three leaders. Noted in the team's favor was the leadership of sporting director Peter Van Petegem, twice a winner of this race. On race day, Hammond made the day's first major breakaway group, one which stayed away over the first ten cobbled climbs. Hushovd effectively stayed at the front of the race most of the day, even chasing back on to the front after puncturing on the Taaienberg. However, attacks from the likes of Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara on the Leberg gapped him off to the point that he never was able to rejoin the front of the race. He finished with the second large group on the road, over four minutes down, in 54th place. Garmin-Cervélo had no riders factor into the race's finale; Farrar fared slightly better than Hushovd, leading the first large group across the finish line, but he was a minute and a half down in 12th place. Haussler was over eight minutes back, having never been a factor in the race. After yet another disappointing showing in a major spring classic, one post-race analysis suggested the team should no longer be considered favorites in single-day races.
Hushovd was again named as a pre-race favorite for the season's third monument, Paris–Roubaix. Farrar and Haussler also rode this race, but they have not had the track record of successes in it that Hushovd has, considering that the Norwegian finished on the podium in both the 2009 and 2010 editions. The race was run aggressively, with nearly covered, incidentally almost the exact distance to the first cobbled sector, in the first two hours of racing. After a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks on and around the Arenberg Trench, the race's most storied and difficult cobbled sector, 21 riders had opened up a gap of two and a half minutes on the race's main favorites, namely Hushovd and Fabian Cancellara. Garmin-Cervélo had Vansummeren and Rasch in this group. Cancellara tried several times to get clear of the group of favorites, but succeeded only in having Hushovd, 's Alessandro Ballan, and Juan Antonio Flecha of follow his wheel while contributing no work themselves. After a while, Cancellara gave up his efforts, deciding that it was not to his advantage to pull Hushovd, a superior sprinter, to the front of the race. At the Mons-en-Pévèle sector from the finish, Vanmarcke and 's Tomas Vaitkus got clear of the Cancellara group for a time. When they were later brought back, Vanmarcke stayed on the front and did work to help pull the group of favorites nearer to the leaders out front. With remaining, Vansummeren surged clear at the front of the race, and quickly took a time gap. Around that same time, Cancellara put in his most intensive pull. Only Hushovd and Ballan could follow, and the Swiss time trial ace very quickly caught every member of the early breakaway that was still out front, with the exception of Vansummeren. There was simply not enough road left to bring back the Belgian. He entered the Roubaix Velodrome alone and took the biggest win of his career 19 seconds ahead of a rapidly closing Cancellara in second. Hushovd finished eighth, fading slightly towards the finish. Vanmarcke held on for 20th despite taking a strong pull at the front of the favorites group. Only also placed three finishers in the top 20. The win was only the second professional race Vansummeren had ever won, after a stage in the 2007 Tour de Pologne. He proposed marriage to his longtime girlfriend after the race – she said yes. Vaughters praised Vansummeren's ride, finding it appropriate with the team's character that a rider who spends almost his entire career in the service of other riders would attain such a prestigious win. He stated that though Cancellara was clearly the strongest rider in the race, Garmin-Cervélo had been the strongest team. He called it his proudest moment as a team boss and said that the result had fulfilled his personal goal of winning one monument race in 2011. Post-race analysis concurred that the result had redeemed the team for their lackluster showings earlier in the spring season.