2011 Geox–TMC season
The 2011 season for the Geox–TMC cycling team, its last, began in February at the Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi and ended in October at the Tour of Hainan.
With new financial backers and a greatly improved roster over their meager 2010 season, the team had hoped to retain UCI ProTeam status in the offseason.
Though both Geox and TMC expressed desire to replace him with former Mapei manager Álvaro Crespi, since the team did not attain ProTeam status, nothing came of this during the season.
With 5 km (3.1 mi) remaining, the trio were a minute clear of the field, and were left to fight it out for the race's honours, where Hermans won ahead of Durán and Tondo.
[24] The following day, Cheula was part of a five-man breakaway in the Trofeo Deià that remained out front for 75 km (46.6 mi), but ultimately the race came down to a sprint for victory, which was claimed by Movistar Team's José Joaquín Rojas.
[27] Neo-pro Pelucchi took the team's first – and ultimately, only single-day – win at the Clásica de Almería in late February, coming home first in a full field sprint.
[33] In the following day's Coppa Papà Carlo element to the race, Felline finished 15 seconds down on Liquigas–Cannondale rider Simone Ponzi in ninth position, just beating UnitedHealthcare's Charly Wegelius.
[42] In stage 2, Alberto Contador beat Menchov and Saur–Sojasun's Jérôme Coppel on a downhill finish, after having been first to the top of the Alto del Collado Bermejo.
[44] Duarte showed his climbing prowess at the Giro del Trentino, winning stage 3 which finished with the first-category ascent of Fai della Paganella.
[53] At August's Vuelta a Burgos, Menchov took fourth place on the opening stage of the event, losing out in a sprint with Sergio Pardilla of the Movistar Team; Cobo and Blanco also finished inside the top ten, several seconds later.
[54] The next day, Cobo again finished well inside the top ten, with a fifth-place result, and Felline led home an eleven-rider group for eighth place.
Duarte moved up to 13th place overall after his result, and trailed Weening's team-mate Steven Kruijswijk by 15 seconds for the lead in the young rider classification.
Valls was one of 16 riders to venture out front, but did not last in the breakaway, and ultimately lost almost 19 minutes to stage-winner José Rujano of Androni Giocattoli by the end of the stage.
[72] Sastre again was part of a large lead group the next day, but failed to make inroads on a small move within the pack, and eventually finished at the rear of the breakaway, along with Kozonchuk, some 80 seconds ahead of the main field.
[74] Just like the Giro, Menchov was the squad's leader at the Vuelta, with Sastre riding in support,[75] and added help from Blanco, de la Fuente and Cobo.
Menchov struggled on the third stage, as he gave up nearly 90 seconds on most of the other favourites for the race, by failing to keep with their pace on the day's final climb, the Alto de la Santa.
[78] De la Fuente tried to make a late-race escape on stage 6 along with three other riders, but the quartet were quickly caught, as they could only muster a maximum advantage over the main field or around ten seconds.
[80] The following day, Cobo and Menchov were both present in a small lead group that pulled back the breakaway within the final 10 km (6.2 mi) of the stage to La Covatilla.
[86] As the race began to take shape in the Cantabrian Mountains, de la Fuente again made the breakaway the following day, with 17 riders in attendance as their gap over the main field extended to over seven and a half minutes with 77 km (47.8 mi) remaining on the roads.
[90] Prior to the main field reaching the climb, Sastre and three other riders formed a small group that chased down Skil–Shimano's Simon Geschke, who had been out front for a period of time.
[100] Cobo's winning margin of 13 seconds over Froome was tied for the third-closest in Vuelta history,[101] and was his first overall victory in a stage race, since he won the 2007 Tour of the Basque Country for Saunier Duval–Prodir.
[105] Two weeks later, it was announced that Geox would be pulling their sponsorship from the team, and as a result, did not raise enough capital by a registration deadline in order to acquire a licence for the 2012 season.
[107] The squad's directeur sportif, Joxean Fernández Matxin, appealed to other companies for their backing,[108] but later allowed the likes of Cobo and de la Fuente to search for new teams for the 2012 season.
[2][113] Matxin originally stated that he wished to continue looking for sponsors until the end of the year,[114] but backtracked a week later, giving up on the search for a new backer.
