We take a look back at Team Sky's hugely-successful 2011 campaign.
A look back at 2011
Team Sky enjoyed a highly successful year on the road in 2011 and established themselves as one of the most potent forces in world cycling.
Benefiting from the experience of a year in the pro peloton, the team’s second season was one of rapid progression and featured an impressive run of results.
The squad ended the campaign second in the UCI's WorldTour team rankings after strong showings in arenas as varied as the brutal cobbled Classics and Spanish high mountains. With 32 wins coming from 14 different men, the riders shared the load across the season which also produced an impressive 103 top-three finishes.
Top of the list of achievements was putting not one, but
two British riders on a Grand Tour podium at the Vuelta a Espana - Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins occupying second and third places respectively - for the first time ever.
The race also yielded two stage wins in addition to a further two victories on the grandest stage of them all – the
Tour de France. The Tour displayed not only the depth of talent in the team but also a fighting spirit; the nine-man squad battling back after leader Wiggins fractured his collarbone on stage seven. The team immediately went on the attack in the days that followed, flying the flag for the Sky Rainforest Rescue in the process.
The two Tour stage wins for Edvald Boasson Hagen were just part of the story as the team embarked on a winning streak across three continents and 16 countries.
Strong start
The season kicked off in Australia, the scene of the team’s first-ever victory in 2010. The Tour Down Under saw the riders go one better, as
Ben Swift stepped up to the plate with two stage wins and a third place overall that saw him elevate his status to one of the world's top sprinting talents.
Early-season stage-race heroics also saw Steve Cummings take a stage and a brief overall lead at the Volta ao Algarve, while Wiggins took an accomplished third at Paris-Nice - a race that also saw the team bag a stage win courtesy of Greg Henderson.
By then the Classics season was well under way, with Juan Antonio Flecha coming within inches of defending his title at a rain-soaked Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The Spaniard was joined on the podium by Mathew Hayman, yet there was no time to dwell on such a narrow defeat, as the very next day Chris Sutton latched onto a perfect lead-out to sprint to the win at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.
The performance was indicative of a team which had upped its game when it came to the iconic spring races, mixing it up at the highest level and confirming their credentials with strong top-10 finishes via Geraint Thomas at the Tour of Flanders with Flecha and Hayman both in the mix again at Paris-Roubaix.
A second place for Thomas at Dwars Door Vlaanderen, another near miss from Ian Stannard at Gent-Wevelgem, and a consistent Ardennes campaign through Simon Gerrans (3rd at Amstel Gold) and Rigoberto Urán (5th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege) demonstrated a team clearly knocking on the door of a big one-day win in 2012.
Winning momentum
May began on a high with another WorldTour sprint victory for Swift at the Tour de Romandie.
While one part of the team battled through a brutal
Giro d’Italia, a double stage-winning trip to the Tour of California also took place which saw Swift and Henderson claim a victory apiece and also enjoy a day in the gold jersey.
That momentum was replicated in Europe with an assault on the Bayern-Rundfahrt stage race. After an opening stage victory for Edvald Boasson Hagen, the leader's jersey was passed to Thomas following the stage four time trial - a stage won by Bradley Wiggins. The team then overcame late pressure to deliver Thomas to victory at the end of a landmark month for the team.
Into June and an
overall victory at the prestigious Critérium du Dauphiné for Wiggins was another strong statement from the team. A combination of strong climbing and time trialling saw the Brit move into the yellow jersey. With largely the same squad from Bayern-Rundfahrt in attendance, the riders put in another committed performance, shepherding Wiggins to the team’s biggest race win.
As July arrived, as did the Tour and the well-documented display of determination and team-work in the world’s biggest bike race. Two stage wins from Boasson Hagen (stages six and 17) proved to be landmark successes for the team. Yet with the race in full swing there was also success elsewhere in Europe, Stannard weighing in with his first victory for the team after a successful breakaway at the Tour of Austria.
Further overall victories during the summer at
Tour of Denmark (Gerrans) and
Eneco Tour (Boasson Hagen) demonstrated the success of a team who throughout 2011, turned promising positions into race wins.
Spanish adventure
August saw the final Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a Espana, get under way. After a tough start in the opening team time trial the riders immediately bounced back with a sprint victory for Sutton on stage two in Playas de Orihuela. From there a stunning assault on the GC began with a climbing partnership of Wiggins and Chris Froome on stage nine and La Covatilla. That solid performance was backed up by two resounding time trial performances - Froome’s time enough to propel him into the red leader’s jersey.
Wiggins then took over the reins with a commanding climbing performance to make it a Team Sky one-two heading into the first rest day. During the remainder of the race, the duo came up against stiff opposition in Juan Jose Cobo, the Spaniard doing enough to take the victory while the Brits rounded out the podium – but not before a
thrilling last-gasp stage victory for Froome on stage 17.
Not to be left out, there were further wins racked up among the team courtesy of Boasson Hagen (Vattenfall Cyclassics), as well as Davide Appollonio and Alex Dowsett (Tour du Poitou-Charentes). A brave battle at the Tour of Britain ended with a stage win in London courtesy of newly-crowned British time trial champion Dowsett and second overall for Cummings.
Attention then turned to the World Championships in Denmark. A silver medal for Wiggins in the time trial acted as the precursor to
an imposing display from the Team Sky riders who were representing no less than nine countries. Team representatives littered the finale driving along various lead-out trains, yet there was no de-railing the Great Britain team, whose riders controlled the race to deliver Mark Cavendish to a first British victory since 1965.
A gutsy win from Hayman at Paris-Bourges rounded out the season in fine style while a newly-crowned Cavendish was announced among a raft of strong new signings ahead of the 2012 campaign.
