Girish Mahajan (Editor)

2011 Tour de Suisse

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Dates
  
11–19 June

Distance
  
1,246.4 km (774.5 mi)

Winner
  
Levi Leipheimer (USA)

Stages
  
9

Winning time
  
31h 45' 02"

Second
  
Damiano Cunego (ITA)

2011 Tour de Suisse

The 2011 Tour de Suisse was the 75th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It started on 11 June with an individual time trial in Lugano and ended with another individual time trial on 19 June, in Schaffhausen. It was the 16th race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.

Contents

Just like the previous edition of the race won by Fränk Schleck, the lead of the race changed hands in the final time trial stage. Lampre–ISD rider Damiano Cunego, who had held the lead of the race since stage three, had an advantage of over 90 seconds to his nearest challenger Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank, but it was Team RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer, who had been fourth prior to the final stage and almost two minutes in arrears of Cunego, that took the final overall honours. Leipheimer, who was only third on the stage behind Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) and team-mate Andreas Klöden, triumphed by four seconds over Cunego after 1,246.4 kilometres (774.5 miles) of racing. Kruijswijk managed to hold on to third place in the overall classification, 62 seconds down on Leipheimer, but eight seconds ahead of another Leopard Trek rider, Jakob Fuglsang.

In the race's other classifications, Leopard Trek rider Andy Schleck won the King of the Mountains classification, Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan won the points classification after placing five times in the top three of stage results, Lloyd Mondory of Ag2r–La Mondiale finished clear at the top of the sprints classification, with Leopard Trek also finishing at the head of the teams classification.

Stage 1

11 June 2011 – Lugano, 7.3 km (4.5 mi) individual time trial (ITT)

Stage 2

12 June 2011 – Airolo to Crans-Montana, 149 km (92.6 mi)

Stage 3

13 June 2011 – Brig to Grindelwald, 107.6 km (66.9 mi)

Stage 4

14 June 2011 – Grindelwald to Huttwil, 198.4 km (123.3 mi)

Stage 5

15 June 2011 – Huttwil to Tägerschen, 204.2 km (126.9 mi)

Stage 6

16 June 2011 – Tägerschen to Malbun (Liechtenstein), 157.7 km (98.0 mi)

Stage 7

17 June 2011 – Vaduz (Liechtenstein) to Serfaus (Austria), 222.8 km (138.4 mi)

Stage 8

18 June 2011 – Tübach to Schaffhausen, 167.3 km (104.0 mi)

Rabobank's Bauke Mollema, who was placed second overall at the time, punctured about 15 km from the finish. When the Leopard Trek team heard it, they lead the chase, and Mollema was unable to get back to the group, and he finished 48 seconds behind. Rabobank assistant directeur sportif Frans Maassen said that Mollema should have had a chance to win the stage.

Stage 9

19 June 2011 – Schaffhausen, 32.1 km (19.9 mi) individual time trial (ITT)

References

2011 Tour de Suisse Wikipedia