2011 Cofidis season
Cofidis | |
---|---|
UCI Professional Continental | |
Manager | Éric Boyer |
Main sponsor(s) | Cofidis |
Based | France |
Season victories | |
One-day races | 2 |
Stage race overall | 3 |
Stage race stages | 12 |
National Championships | 1 |
Most wins | Samuel Dumoulin & David Moncoutié (6 wins each) |
The 2011 season for the
The team's most successful rider in 2011 was
2011 roster
Ages as of 1 January 2011.
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One-day races
The team was active in races which preceded those known as "classics" and the traditional start of the spring season. At the
Spring classics
Duque took a high placing at the
The team picked up their first single-day win the same day as the more prestigious Tour of Flanders, in which they participated but were not especially competitive, with Duque in 19th their best finisher.[16] The race they won was the inaugural Flèche d'Emeraude, a new race in the UCI Europe Tour and the French Road Cycling Cup. Gallopin came first at the head of a field sprint in Saint-Malo.[17] Zingle figured into a winning breakaway at the Brabantse Pijl, the precursor to the Ardennes classics. He took seventh place, a minute and a half back of the winner Philippe Gilbert.[18] Vogondy was sixth at the Tour du Finistère, finishing with a big main group behind two leaders.[19]
Demaret took the team's second single-day win at the
The team was not especially competitive at the spring season's
Fall races
The team secured several high placings in the later season, but did not obtain any victories. In late July, the team took two of the top six placings at the
The team sent squads to the
Stage races
The team got their first win of the season, in their first stage race, at the
Taaramäe took fourth overall at Paris–Nice in March, winning the youth classification with this performance, which was easily the strongest for an Estonian rider in the event's history.[32] Taaramäe turned in a similar strong ride at the two-day, three-stage Critérium International, finishing on the event's final podium in third place, and securing the youth classification.[33] At the concurrent Volta a Catalunya, Dumoulin took two stage wins. The first was in stage 5, on an uphill false flat finish which Dumoulin felt suited him well.[34] The second was more unexpected, in that it was a dead flat run in to the finish on wide roads, a more traditional field sprint.[35] Dumoulin was delighted to win twice in front of some of the sport's biggest stars, and stated that his next goal would be a major spring classic, perhaps the Amstel Gold Race.[36] Dumoulin, however, was not a factor at the Amstel, finishing 104th, over eight minutes behind the winner.[37]
In June, Maté won the final stage at the
The team took several wins in August. Dumoulin took a win in the first stage of
The team also sent squads to the
Grand Tours
As a Professional Continental team, Cofidis needed to be selected by the organizers of any of the Grand Tours in order to participate. They were selected to ride the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, but not the Giro d'Italia.
Tour de France
The
Taaramäe finished near the front of the race on stage 1 atop the short Mont des Alouettes hill. He was distanced by stage winner Philippe Gilbert and eventual Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, but finished with the main front group six seconds back for eighth on the day.[51] The team had a very poor team time trial, coming in 21st. They were second to last, ahead of Euskaltel–Euskadi, who are renowned for having weak time trialists on their roster, and only by 2 seconds. The result dropped Taaramäe down to 66th place.[52] The squad was mostly quiet in the first half of the Tour, with Gallopin taking fourth in a field sprint to finish stage 5 and Dumoulin tenth in stage 10 their best finishes.[53][54]
On stage 13 into Lourdes, which included a passage over the hors catégorie climb Col d'Aubisque, Moncoutié figured into a ten-man breakaway. Given the lack of overall threat in the group, the peloton did not mount a serious chase, meaning the stage winner would come from this group of ten. FDJ's Jérémy Roy broke away from the group on the way up the climb. Moncoutié strenuously chased him, with Thor Hushovd following behind. The other breakaway riders all faded, finishing five minutes back on the stage. Roy crested the Aubisque first, and Moncoutié second. Hushovd, a rider known as a very strong descender, caught up with Moncoutié on the way down the Aubisque. With a short flat section still to race after the descent, Moncoutié and Hushovd worked cohesively as a chase group behind Roy. They caught and passed Roy 3 km (1.9 mi) from the end of the stage, and Hushovd eventually dropped Moncoutié as well to be the solo stage winner; Moncoutié finished second and Roy third.[55] Moncoutié was roundly criticized by the French press for collaborating with Hushovd in the chase, with Roy (a fellow Frenchman) up the road. To that point in the Tour, no French rider had yet won a stage. Team manager Boyer defended Moncoutié, saying Hushovd was likely to surpass Roy and win any sprint at the end of the stage no matter what, and by working with him Moncoutié assured himself second place rather than falling to third.[56]
Taaramäe took over the white jersey for best young rider from Rigoberto Urán on stage 18. Urán finished a distant 27th on the day, seven minutes off the pace of stage winner Andy Schleck. Taaramäe's eighth place, three minutes back of Schleck but four minutes the better of Urán, moved him into 11th place overall and into the best young rider's position, by 33 seconds over Pierre Rolland.[57] Rolland won the stage at Alpe d'Huez the next day, with Taaramäe finishing 14th two minutes back. This gave Rolland an advantage of a minute and 33 seconds going into the stage 20 individual time trial, where Taaramäe's skills are superior.[58] Taaramäe indeed finished better than Rolland in the time trial, tenth to Rolland's 21st, but gained only 48 seconds.[59] This was insufficient to win back the white jersey before the final, largely ceremonial stage into Paris on the Tour's final day.[60] Taaramäe finished the Tour in 12th place overall, at a deficit of eleven and a half minutes to Tour champion Cadel Evans. Moncoutié was not a major factor in any classification, finishing 41st overall and 25th in the mountains classification. Given his result at just 24 years of age, and that he retains eligibility for the white jersey in the 2012 Tour de France, Boyer expressed that he was quite pleased with Taaramäe's performance, and that he expected the Estonian to be a contender for the overall podium at the Tour within two or three years.[56]
Vuelta a España
Cofidis was one of the four wildcard entries to the Vuelta a España.[61] After a disappointing Tour de France, Moncoutié decided to ride the Vuelta in hopes of capturing his fourth consecutive King of the Mountains jersey at the Spanish Grand Tour, which would be a new record. While he had entered 2011 thinking it would likely be his last season as a professional rider, Moncoutié changed his mind about that as well and said he would "probably be part of the bunch in 2012."[62] Taaramäe was also named to the team for the Vuelta.
The squad did slightly better in the stage 1 team time trial than they did in the equivalent stage at the Tour de France, coming 17th of 22 teams.[63] Moncoutié secured a high placing on stage 6, coming in ninth on the day with the lead chase group that finished behind four Liquigas–Cannondale riders at the head of the race.[64] Taaramäe climbed with the race's best riders on stage 9, coming in seventh on La Covatilla.[65] However, he was not any sort of overall threat – he was already over an hour down in the overall standings, having been in breakaways in stages 4, 6, and 8 which did not succeed and lost considerable time to the stage winner each day.[66][67][68]
Moncoutié participated in a winning breakaway in stage 11. Some 19 km (12 mi) from the end of the stage, which concluded on a climb at Estación de Montaña Manzaneda, Moncoutié set out on a solo attack to win the stage. The attack was successful, and the veteran Frenchman won a Vuelta stage for the fourth consecutive year. He said after the stage that he rued falling short at Sierra Nevada, and had studied this course profile carefully to know when to attack to get away for victory.[69] The result also moved Moncoutié up to second in the mountains classification, just a single point behind Ag2r–La Mondiale's Matteo Montaguti. He took the jersey two days later on stage 13 by joining another winning breakaway. Montaguti had also made the breakaway, but he was unable to stay at the front of the race all day. Moncoutié took two second places and one win on the final three climbs of the day, resulting in a 12-point lead over Montaguti in the classification.[70] The next day was another good one for the team. Taaramäe made the morning breakaway and held off the race's top riders as they neared the front of the race. He held on for victory atop La Farrapona by 25 seconds ahead of eventual Vuelta champion Juan José Cobo in second, as all other members of the breakaway finished well back.[71]
Moncoutié all but clinched his mountains classification triumph on stage 15. While he finished nine minutes behind Cobo on
Season victories
National, Continental and World champions
Date | Discipline | Jersey | Rider | Country | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
June 20 | Estonian Time Trial Champion | Rein Taaramäe (EST) | Estonia |
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Rider joined the team on 1 August as a stagiaire.
- Luis Maté, David Moncoutié, and Damien Monier
- ^ The riders on the squad were Aleksejs Saramotins, Tony Gallopin, Rémi Cusin, Romain Zingle, Jens Keukeleire, Julien El Fares, Arnaud Labbe, and Yoann Bagot
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