2011 Vacansoleil–DCM season

Johnny Hoogerland held the lead of the mountains classification on two occasions, while Romain Feillu finished in the top five on four stages during the first half of the race.

The team started the single-day season with a third-place finish for Feillu at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise in January,[18] and first-year professional Ligthart taking a similar placing in February's Clásica de Almería.

[21] Ligthart won his first race as a professional in April, by winning Hel van het Mergelland in a sprint finish of 26 riders.

[25] In the Grand Prix Pino Cerami, Marcato finished in second place, having been part of an eleven-man breakaway formed with around 40 km (24.9 mi) remaining, before losing to Scheirlinckx in a two-man sprint after the two had jettisoned their fellow escapees.

[26] Leukemans suffered the same result in Brabantse Pijl, losing out to Omega Pharma–Lotto's Philippe Gilbert in another two-man sprint, after the two riders attacked off the front of a seven-man lead group.

[27] Following a second place at the Grand Prix de Denain,[28] Feillu won the Tour du Finistère in mid-April, gapping the field in an uphill sprint to the line.

[29] Leukemans continued his good form into the Ardennes classics, taking seventh place in the Amstel Gold Race,[30] and ninth in Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

[37] The team also sent squads to the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,[38] Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne,[39] Le Samyn,[40] the Nokere Koerse,[41] the Handzame Classic,[42] Milan – San Remo,[43] the Cholet-Pays de Loire,[44] E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke,[45] Gent–Wevelgem,[46] the Scheldeprijs,[47] Paris–Roubaix,[48] the Tro-Bro Léon,[49] La Flèche Wallonne,[50] the GP Herning,[51] the Rund um Köln,[52] the ProRace Berlin,[53] and the Gullegem Koerse,[54] but placed no higher than 12th in any of these races.

[55] Willem Wauters – who joined the team as a stagiaire in August – made an immediate impact for the team, finishing second behind SpiderTech–C10's Svein Tuft in the Grote Prijs Stad Zottegem,[56] while the following day, Leukemans followed up his overall win from the Tour du Limousin with victory in Druivenkoers Overijse – for the second year in succession[57] – beating Landbouwkrediet's Davy Commeyne and Jurgen Van Goolen of Veranda's Willems–Accent to the line.

[58] The team achieved more top-ten placings in September, taking six within the space of a week; Božič finished ninth in the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen,[59] and sixth in Paris–Brussels,[60] while Leukemans finished sixth in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec World Tour race,[61] and third on his return to Europe, in the Grand Prix de Wallonie.

[71] The team also sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián,[72] the Dutch Food Valley Classic,[73] the Châteauroux Classic,[74] the GP Ouest-France,[75] the Schaal Sels-Merksem,[76] the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens,[77] the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen,[78] Omloop van het Houtland,[79] Binche–Tournai–Binche,[80] the Nationale Sluitingsprijs,[81] and the Giro di Lombardia,[82] but finished no higher than 11th in any of these races.

Mosquera had tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch at the 2010 Vuelta a España, while Riccò had been admitted to hospital earlier in February, amid allegations that he had carried out a self-administered autologous blood transfusion at his home.

[1] Carrara was the team's leader for the race, while Božič and Hoogerland were named to the squad to aim for stage wins and breakaway representation.

Hoogerland did however take the lead of the mountains classification at the conclusion of the sixth stage, where Feillu had finished fourth and Marcato ninth.

With 36 km (22.4 mi) remaining, Hoogerland and fellow escapee Juan Antonio Flecha of Team Sky 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 would later require 33 stitches to close gashes on his leg.

[134] Prior to the crash, Hoogerland had gained enough points on the stage to retake the lead of the mountains classification from HTC–Highroad's Tejay van Garderen.

[148] The next day, the race headed to the summit finish of the Angliru for the first time in three years, and while Geox–TMC's Juan José Cobo soloed into his eventual race-winning general classification lead, Poels was his closest challenger, 48 seconds in arrears but enough to move him into the top ten overall.

[151] Having made his season début with a seventh place in the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise in France on January 30,[18] and prior to travelling to the Tour Méditerranéen, Riccò was admitted to hospital in Pavullo nel Frignano on February 6, with his father Rubinho stating that his son had apparent "kidney failure" and a body temperature of 104 °F (40 °C); he was later transferred to a hospital in Modena.

[157] His team also released a statement that day, calling the reports "a rumour", but started their own investigation into the matter, and if found to have doped, Riccò would be sacked as a violation of UCI anti-doping rules.

[164] Riccò announced his intention to never race again in March,[165] but signed with Continental team Meridiana-Kamen in June in the hope of competing in the Tour de Serbie.