page_title: 2011 Team Sky season
section_title: Tour de France
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 Team Sky season / Grand Tours / Tour de France
caption_attribution_description: Juan Antonio Flecha during Stage 19 of the 2011 Tour de France.
context_page_description: The 2011 season for the Team Sky 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 Geox–TMC'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.
context_section_description: The team helped to raise awareness and support for the Sky Rainforest Rescue, a three-year partnership between Sky and the World Wide Fund for Nature to help save a billion trees in the state of Acre in northwest Brazil. As such, instead of their normal team kit of black with blue trim, the squad wore black with green trim, for the duration of the race. Following on from a 24th-place finish in 2010, Wiggins was the team's leader for the race, with Swift, Thomas, Boasson Hagen, Urán, Flecha, Zandio, Knees and Gerrans making up the nine-man outfit. Thomas assumed the lead of the young rider classification, after finishing sixth in the opening stage to Mont des Alouettes, after Boasson Hagen had tried to track down the eventual stage winner Philippe Gilbert. The squad set the third-fastest time in the stage 2 team time trial; having set the quickest time at the first intermediate sprint – by one second ahead of Garmin–Cervélo – the team were eventually beaten by Garmin–Cervélo and BMC Racing Team, but the performance was good enough to move Thomas into fourth place overall and Boasson Hagen into eighth place.
  Urán placed fourth on the fourth stage, finishing with many of the overall contenders for the race, on the steep uphill finish to Mûr-de-Bretagne. Wiggins became the team's best placed rider, moving into sixth place despite losing time to the top ten on the stage – a result that left him pleased at the end of the stage – and Thomas and Boasson Hagen also remained in the top ten, in seventh and eighth respectively. Boasson Hagen tried to make a solo bid for victory the next day, within the closing stages, but could not hold the pace, and was usurped by the field. Thomas placed fifth on the stage, aiding eventual stage winner Mark Cavendish's progress, as he maintained his lead in the young rider classification. Boasson Hagen earned the team's first Tour win on the sixth stage into Lisieux. Having held their attack until the time was right, Swift and Thomas formed the lead-out for Boasson Hagen to win the longest stage of the 2011 race.
  Wiggins' Tour ended on stage 7, after a large crash in the main field with 40 kilometres (24.9 mi) remaining on the stage; Wiggins was one of many riders to hit the ground, and after getting back to his feet, he was seen to be holding his left arm, and was eventually diagnosed with a broken collarbone. All the team's remaining riders lost three minutes to the majority of the field, with Thomas losing the young rider classification lead to Rabobank rider Robert Gesink as a result. Flecha attacked the peloton 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) from the end of stage 8 with Astana's Alexander Vinokourov, to chase after several riders further down the road, but Vinokourov dropped Flecha prior to the final climb to Super Besse. Flecha made another break from the peloton on the ninth stage, as he was joined by five other riders who extended their lead over the field. With 36 km (22.4 mi) remaining, Flecha and fellow escapee Johnny Hoogerland of Vacansoleil–DCM were involved in a dramatic crash; while attempting to overtake the riders, a support car from France Télévisions sideswiped Flecha, and as a result, caused Hoogerland to crash into a barbed wire fence, and Flecha also fell to the ground. Flecha suffered whiplash, as well as cuts and lacerations to his knee, but was fit enough to continue in the race after the rest day.
  Thomas and Boasson Hagen each placed in the top ten again before the first half of the race drew to a close. Thomas later made the breakaway on stage 12, and was out front for the entire day until part-way up the final climb to Luz Ardiden, when he and companion Jérémy Roy (FDJ) were caught with 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) remaining by Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma–Lotto) and Euskaltel–Euskadi's Samuel Sánchez; the latter pair eventually went on to finish in first and second on the stage. Thomas was later awarded the most aggressive rider prize for the day. The following day, Boasson Hagen also made into the breakaway, eventually finishing in sixth place on the stage, after three riders esc
caption: Juan Antonio Flecha, during stage 19, wearing the team's special kit for the race. Flecha also made headlines when he and Vacansoleil–DCM's Johnny Hoogerland were sideswiped by a France Télévisions car during an overtaking manoeuvre, while they rode in a breakaway.
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