The 2011 season for began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with Baden Cooke's participation in the Noosa Grand Prix. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
The team's ridership changed drastically after the 2010 season. Two of its leaders in past seasons, Andy and Fränk Schleck, departed for the newly formed , along with several other riders. The team notably added three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and three of his helpers from the 2010 Astana team, while his doping case stemming from the 2010 Tour de France remained unresolved until February 2012, where he was given a backdated two-year ban. As well as his results from that race, all of his results from 2011 were disqualified, including his victory in the Giro d'Italia. From the squad's 2011 total, Contador vacated six stage victories and three overall stage race victories, along with four sub-classification triumphs.
2011 roster
Ages as of January 1, 2011.
Riders who joined the team for the 2011 season
Riders who left the team during or after the 2010 season
One-day races
Spring classics
New acquisition Nuyens took the team's first one-day win of the season at Dwars door Vlaanderen. After several chase groups attempting to catch the morning breakaway were subsequently caught by the peloton, Nuyens and 's Geraint Thomas caught up with the last two from the finish line. They eventually dropped both, and contested the win between themselves despite nearly being caught in turn. Nuyens and Thomas never had more than 20 seconds' advantage, and no appreciable time gap at the finish, but Nuyens just managed to hang on for the win. 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. Nuyens rode a largely defensive race. 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. He had been gapped off on the Kwaremont, but made a bridge back to the leading group along with Stijn Devolder. As he had much of the day, Nuyens stayed within the slipstreams of the other riders to the finish. Cancellara led out the sprint, but Nuyens maneuvered around him at the finish, taking the biggest win of his career. Riis praised Nuyens' ride after the race, but also admitted that the Belgian had been a bit lucky to win. Cancellara, for his part, blasted Nuyens and the other riders in the race for riding, as Cancellara saw it, only to ensure that he did not win.
Cooke was the team's leader at the third monument classic, Paris–Roubaix, the first time the veteran Aussie had ever held such a mantle. He did not expect to contend for victory, but was confident of a top-ten placing. Cooke ended up having a difficult race, crashing twice and breaking his shoe after the second impact. His team car brought him a new bike, but they were not at first aware that he needed a new cleat, so he rode for several kilometers with one foot bare. This effectively ended his race, and he finished in 22nd place, almost four minutes behind the winner Johan Vansummeren. 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.
The team also sent squads to the Classic Loire Atlantique, Milan–San Remo, Cholet-Pays de Loire, the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, the Scheldeprijs, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, Gullegem Koerse and Halle–Ingooigem, but placed no higher than 11th in any of these races.
Fall races
The team also sent squads to the Grand Prix José Dubois, the Clásica de San Sebastián, the Vattenfall Cyclassics, the GP Ouest-France, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, Paris–Brussels, the Grand Prix de Fourmies, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Grand Prix de Wallonie, the Giro dell'Emilia, the Grand Prix Bruno Beghelli, the Giro di Lombardia, the Japan Cup and the Noosa Grand Prix, but finished no higher than 12th in any of these races.