The 2011 season for the cycling team began in January at the Bay Classic Series 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. Improving upon 20 victories in the 2010 season, Team Sky managed 28 victories during the season, including four Grand Tour stage wins, two each at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. Also at the Vuelta, the team achieved their best Grand Tour showing to date with Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins finishing the race in second and third places – behind 's Juan José Cobo – having both held the red jersey for the general classification lead at some stage of the race. Outside of the Grand Tours, the team achieved stage victories at four other World Tour events and the overall victory at two, with Wiggins winning the pre-Tour warmup event, the Critérium du Dauphiné and Edvald Boasson Hagen claimed victory at the Eneco Tour held in Belgium and the Netherlands. The team were not as successful in single-day races, with three wins taken by Christopher Sutton, Boasson Hagen and Mathew Hayman. With the performances of Froome, Wiggins and Boasson Hagen, Team Sky made a substantial leap up the World Tour rankings; having finished fifteenth in the 2010 UCI World Ranking, Team Sky finished as runners-up in the 2011 rankings, just 40 points behind overall winners .
On 13 June 2019, the sport's governing body, the Union Cycliste International (UCI), announced that Juan José Cobo had been found guilty of an anti-doping violation, according to findings from his biological passport. As a result, the UCI penalised him with a three-year period of ineligibility. Cobo was officially stripped of the title on 18 June 2019. On 17 July 2019, as the time for Cobo to appeal the decision expired with no application, the UCI announced it recognised Chris Froome as the 2011 champion, making him retroactively the first Briton to win a Grand Tour, and simultaneously promoting Bradley Wiggins to 2nd place.Froome is recognised as 2011 champion. from as.com
2011 roster Ages as of 1 January 2011.
Riders who joined the team for the 2011 season Rider2010 teamAlex DowsettTrek-LivestrongRigoberto UránXabier ZandioJeremy HuntDavide AppollonioMichael RogersChristian Knees
Riders who left the team during or after the 2010 season Rider2011 teamSylvain CalzatiNicolas PortalRetiredDavide Viganò
One-day races
Spring classics
The team's first single-day race of the year was Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February, where Flecha had tasted success in 2010. Prior to the race, Flecha stated that it would be difficult for him to win the race again, but felt that the team was in a good position to aid him along the way. In the race, following an earlier attack from former team-mate Sebastian Langeveld, Flecha attacked from the chasing group with left, on the Paddestraat, having trailed Langeveld by over a minute on the road. Flecha caught him halfway to the finish, and the two worked together on the run into Ghent, in order to stay clear. Flecha tried to gap Langeveld with left, but could not sustain a big enough margin to get clear. The two riders contested the sprint in the wet conditions, and Langeveld just got the better of Flecha on the line, winning by . Hayman made it two Team Sky riders on the podium, as he finished the best of the chasing group, in third place. Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, held the next day, resulted in the team's first single-day win of the year. Flecha and Stannard tried to break the field with around left in the race, but were eventually pulled back as were several other riders down the road from their group. After several further attempts by riders to gain breathing space from the field, it was left for a sprint finish to decide the winner of the race. Flecha pulled on the front to set up one of their sprinters in the race, Boasson Hagen or Sutton, and when Flecha stepped aside, it was left to Boasson Hagen to build the pace and released Sutton to the line, who won by almost a bike length. In March, Thomas put in a strong performance in Dwars door Vlaanderen; with left in the race, Thomas and 's Nick Nuyens attacked off the front of the peloton to catch up with the leaders on the road, 's Frédéric Amorison and Rob Goris of . Nuyens and Thomas later dropped the pair and contested the sprint finish between them, with Nuyens taking the victory. April started with another top-ten finish in the second of the Cobbled classics, as Thomas finished tenth in the Tour of Flanders, having bridged up to the lead group prior to the final climb of the race, the cobbled Bosberg hill, from the finish in Meerbeke. The following weekend, Flecha finished in ninth place at Paris–Roubaix, leading home team-mate Hayman, 47 seconds down on race-winner Johan Vansummeren of . The Amstel Gold Race was next up, and the team were aiming to ride for Gerrans and Nordhaug. Gerrans did indeed feature in the closing stages of the race, but only for third place as 's Philippe Gilbert and rider Joaquim Rodríguez had already accelerated away from the field. Urán placed best for the team at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, finishing in fifth place. The team also sent squads to Milan–San Remo, Gent–Wevelgem, the Scheldeprijs, and La Flèche Wallonne, but placed no higher than 19th in any of these races.
Autumn races
Shortly after the Tour de France, Urán finished within the lead group at the Clásica de San Sebastián, where he placed ninth. In August, Boasson Hagen tasted success in Germany, by winning the Vattenfall Cyclassics; Boasson Hagen attacked from out, and held off Gerald Ciolek, who took second place for , while Borut Božič completed the podium for . The following week, at the GP Ouest-France, Gerrans finished second behind 's Grega Bole, after Bole had attacked the field within the final of the race. For the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, Sky looked to control the race in order to protect Urán, Gerrans and Boasson Hagen. Urán did eventually feature in the race's closing stages; he made it into a ten-man lead group, and when 's Robert Gesink attacked with left, Urán went with him but both riders were closed down quickly. Philippe Gilbert then attacked the group again and eventually beat Gesink to the line, with Urán completing the podium, nine seconds behind the pair. In October, Gerrans and Nordhaug both took top ten placements in the Coppa Sabatini race in Tuscany, which also saw Urán make an error by mistakenly believing that he had won the race, when there was still another lap of the circuit to be completed. The same day, in France, Hayman won the Paris–Bourges event in a sprint finish, having been in a breakaway from into the race. Two other Team Sky riders finished in the top ten, as Henderson finished third behind rider Baden Cooke, while Sutton finished in tenth position, the last rider to finish in the same time as Hayman, who claimed his first victory since the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Urán took another third-place finish, in the Giro dell'Emilia, coming home in a group of four riders, over 20 seconds behind race-winner Carlos Betancur of . The next day, at Paris–Tours, Stannard made several aggressive attacks before the race had reached Tours, but could not react to a joint move by Marco Marcato of and rider Greg Van Avermaet, who contested the top two places at the finish. Stannard attacked in the final but could only finish fourth in the end, just behind 's Kasper Klostergaard. The team's year was concluded by a tenth-place finish by Löfkvist at the Giro del Piemonte, and third-place finishes for Dowsett at the Chrono des Nations, and Sutton at the Noosa Grand Prix. The team also sent squads to the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli, and the Giro di Lombardia, but placed no higher than 15th in any of these races.
Stage races
At the Tour Down Under in January, Swift took the team's first win of the season in the second stage into Mannum. Swift avoided two crashes within the closing , which saw several of his team-mates fall, to out-sprint Australian pair Robbie McEwen () and Graeme Brown () to the line. After two further top-ten placings on the fourth and fifth stages, Swift claimed his second stage victory on the final stage, a circuit race in Adelaide. Within the closing stages, the team set up a perfectly executed sprint lead-out for Swift, and also Henderson; the two riders completed a 1–2 finish, and with ten bonus seconds on offer on the line for the stage winner, Swift moved from sixth place to an eventual third-place finish in the general classification.
February's Volta ao Algarve resulted in Cummings taking a stage win on the third stage, a mountain-top finish at the Alto do Malhão; having been a part of five-man sprint to the line, Cummings got the better of 's Tejay van Garderen and rider Alberto Contador – only competing in the race after being cleared of doping charges the day before the race – and moved into the race lead, holding an advantage of six seconds over Contador. He held the lead until the final day time-trial, where he finished over a minute down on the quickest time and fell to seventh place in the general classification. Henderson won a stage at Paris–Nice in March, taking the second stage into Amilly, in a sprint finish after a lead-out from Thomas. Wiggins finished the event third overall, after taking the same place on the sixth stage time trial. Swift continued his strong run at the Vuelta a Castilla y León in April, where he won the final stage of the race after help from Downing, to take his third win of the season. Swift repeated the feat a fortnight later at a World Tour event, as he won the final stage of the Tour de Romandie in Geneva.
Following on from that success, the team took two more stage wins in the Tour of California, held later in May. After stage one was cancelled due to a snowstorm and unsafe riding conditions, the second stage was run over a shorter distance, and rain started to fall as the race headed into the finishing circuit in Sacramento, where the team came to the front to assume control for the in-form Swift; he was favored instead of the team's regular sprinter Henderson, who had not raced since the Scheldeprijs in early April, but Henderson was utilised as the leadout man for Swift, and released him to his fifth victory of 2011, securing the first yellow and green jerseys – for the lead of both the general classification and the sprints classification – of the race. The following day, it was Henderson's turn to win a stage, although not in the manner that he had been accustomed to. Henderson led the sprint from out, but Swift was not in a position to challenge for the sprint, so it was left to Henderson to bring home the laurels for the team, winning the sprint by a bike length, and assuming the race lead on countback from Swift. Henderson surrendered the race lead on the mountainous fourth stage, however, but both he and Swift took further third place stage finishes before the Tour was complete.