2011 Saxo Bank–SunGard season

The 2011 season for Saxo Bank–SunGard began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with Baden Cooke's participation in the Noosa Grand Prix.

[23] Nuyens' win made him a pre-race contender at the monument classic the Tour of Flanders, though he was not seen as a true favorite ahead of riders like Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen.

One photographer remarked after the race that he had not taken any pictures of Nuyens until he and Sylvain Chavanel bridged up to an attack by Cancellara on the Bosberg, the eighteenth and final cobbled climb on the day's parcours.

[32] Riis nonetheless praised his team's efforts, saying the support riders had rallied well around Cooke, but the Aussie sprinter's bad luck had doomed his chances.

[38] Contador won the queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya in March, last shedding former teammate Levi Leipheimer on the ascent to Vallnord in Andorra.

[39] The other stages all ended in group sprints, meaning Contador's 23-second time gap attained in Andorra was sufficient to win him the race overall.

[40] Contador entered the Vuelta a Castilla y León as the defending champion and winner of three of the last four editions of the race, but he came in having battled a cold over the two days previous to the event and with his Court of Arbitration for Sport looming in the near future.

While riding for Astana in the 2010 Tour de France, Contador tested positive for clenbuterol, a bronchodilator and stimulant specifically banned by UCI anti-doping rules.

Due in large part to the tiny amount of the substance present in his urine sample, 50 picograms per milliliter, Contador believed the positive was the result of eating contaminated beef.

[48] Though provisionally suspended with immediate effect by the UCI,[49] he attended the team's first training camp in December, still unsure what his status for the 2011 season would be.

On March 24, the UCI confirmed that they would appeal the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, feeling that the highest legal body should hear the case.

[56] The appeal casts doubt on Contador's potential presence in the 2011 Tour de France, as a member of the court stated that he is pessimistic that the case will be decided before July.

A man of about thirty wearing a black and pale blue cycling jersey with white trim, shades, and a white baseball cap walks by a blue backdrop.
Nick Nuyens (pictured here later in the season at the Four Days of Dunkirk event) won two single-day races in the Flanders region of Belgium, including the monument classic the Tour of Flanders .