2011 FDJ season

Vichot won Les Boucles du Sud Ardèche, taking place on the traditional opening weekend for the spring classics, at the front of a 12-rider sprint finish.[20] On the same weekend, Offredo finished fourth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,[21] and Hutarovich finished second to Team Sky rider Christopher Sutton in Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne; falling short by around a bike length,[22][23] while Ladagnous featured in the main breakaways of both races. In March, Hutarovich finished fifth in Le Samyn, nine seconds down on race-winner, Dominic Klemme of Leopard Trek.[24] Chainel finished sixth in the Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers,[25] before Meersman placed second in Paris–Troyes, losing out to Saur–Sojasun rider Jonathan Hivert in a four-man sprint to the line.[26] Chainel and Bouhanni also placed in the top ten, finishing fifth and eighth respectively.[26] After another breakaway in which Ladagnous was involved in, Hutarovich finished fifth in a mass sprint at the conclusion of Nokere Koerse.[27] At Classic Loire Atlantique in France, after creating a four-man breakaway with Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil–DCM, Saur–Sojasun's Jean-Marc Marino and Landbouwkrediet rider Frédéric Amorison, they were joined by five other riders within the last 5 km (3.1 mi), and Geslin ultimately could not hold onto the leaders' pace, and eventually finished sixth, 22 seconds down.[28]

The team showed strongly at the first monument race of the season, Milan–San Remo. Chainel and Offredo were two of the 44 riders in the leading group on the road after a crash on the Le Manie climb 90 km (56 mi) from the finish effectively split the race in to. Both of them attacked and got free on the Cipressa, the course's penultimate climb, drawing Stuart O'Grady and Greg Van Avermaet with them. Chainel drove the group, sacrificing himself for Offredo. Vincenzo Nibali caught and surpassed them on the Poggio, the last climb on the course, but Offredo stayed with the group chasing Nibali, driven by world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, and finished at the front of the race. He, Nibali, and Philippe Gilbert opened up the sprint for victory, made somewhat unusual by the fact that it was contested by eight riders representing eight different teams. Most of the leading group passed up Offredo, but he finished with a strong seventh place on the day.[29] Madiot was impressed by Offredo's ride, his second attacking performance in Milan–San Remo in as many participations, and stated that he believed Offredo had a strong future as a classics rider ahead of him.[30] While seventh place would have awarded 30 UCI World Tour points, Offredo's performance was not scored due to FDJ's relegation to Professional Continental status in the offseason. It had no bearing on the number of riders France were afforded at the world championships, unlike the nations of the other top performers in the race.[31]

Gianni Meersman, pictured at Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, finished in the top five of four single-day races in the first half of the season, including second places in Paris–Troyes and Route Adélie.

Three days later, Rollin finished tenth in Dwars door Vlaanderen.[32] Bonnet finished sixth in the succeeding E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke three days later,[33] after making his way into the breakaway, with Chainel also making it into a secondary breakaway from the main field after pressure from the Garmin–Cervélo squad. He eventually finished the race 15th.[33] At the beginning of April, Meersman earned his second runner-up placing in the space of three weeks, finishing behind Renaud Dion (Bretagne–Schuller) in Route Adélie; Meersman had been one of seven riders in contention for victory in a breakaway in the closing stages.[34][35] Meersman followed up that performance two days later, in the inaugural Flèche d'Emeraude, by finishing fourth in the final mass sprint.[34] Hutarovich finished third in the Scheldeprijs three days later,[36] having avoided a crash in the finishing straight which eliminated several riders from contention for the top placings. Casar won Paris–Camembert later in April, by making a late ten-rider selection which included teammate Fédrigo, who worked to set Casar up for a sprint on the uphill finish. Casar was easily the strongest, ahead of Romain Hardy and Julien Antomarchi.[37]

The following day, Geslin finished third in Brabantse Pijl, having been a part of a seven-man lead group, before Omega Pharma–Lotto's Philippe Gilbert and Vacansoleil–DCM rider Björn Leukemans attacked off the front and stayed away until the end.[38] Meersman also finished within the top ten – in eighth place – after a counter-attack from the main field. Bouhanni finished eighth at the Grand Prix de Denain,[39] before Casar finished third in the next day's Tour du Finistère, after Vacansoleil–DCM's Romain Feillu gapped the field in an uphill sprint to the line.[40] Jeannesson and Chainel were part of a quartet of riders that were in the running for victory in Tro-Bro Léon, but both riders faded in the closing stages, and eventually finished third and fourth, 20 seconds down on race-winner Vincent Jérôme of Team Europcar.[41] In May, Fédrigo finished second, behind BigMat–Auber 93 rider Sylvain Georges, in the Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan,[42] while Pauriol finished tenth in the next day's Boucles de l'Aulne.[43] Meersman completed the team's first-half single-day schedule, with third place in Halle–Ingooigem.[44]

The team also sent squads to the Trofeo Laigueglia, Cholet-Pays de Loire, Gent–Wevelgem, the GP Miguel Induráin, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but placed no higher than 11th in any of these races.

Yauheni Hutarovich, pictured at the Four Days of Dunkirk, triumphed in two single-day races in the second half of 2011; winning the Coppa Bernocchi in August and the Nationale Sluitingsprijs in October, as well as three runner-up placings.

The second half of the 2011 season for FDJ began with La Ronde Pévèloise, held concurrently with the Tour de France, in which the team also competed in. Hutarovich finished second to Arnaud Démare – who joined the squad in August as a stagiaire – in a sprint finish, with Soupe also finishing in fifth place.[45] The following week, Ladagnous placed second in the Grand Prix José Dubois,[46] just behind Landbouwkrediet rider Sébastien Delfosse. Courteille finished fifth in the race, 13 seconds behind Delfosse. In late July, the team took two of the top eight placings at the Polynormande, with Gérard in third and Ladagnous in eighth. Gérard had been part of a breakaway, and Ladagnous third from the peloton just over four and a half minutes behind race-winner Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun).[47] Pinot earned another third place for the team in August's Tre Valli Varesine; he accelerated clear of Astana's Enrico Gasparotto, who had tried to break the peloton and chase after Davide Rebellin (Miche–Guerciotti) and Domenico Pozzovivo of Colnago–CSF Inox, after they broke clear with under 1 km (0.62 mi) remaining.[48]

The squad's fourth one-day win of the season came two days later, in the final race of Trittico Lombardo, at the Coppa Bernocchi. Hutarovich was one of a select group of sprinters to maintain a position within the main field in the prospect of a potential sprint finish, in which he would be one of the favourites for. With support from Casar, Jeannesson and Vaugrenard, Hutarovich was led towards the front of the main field just before the race entered its closing stages. A late-race crash reduced the number of riders in contention, and left Hutarovich, Colnago–CSF Inox rider Manuel Belletti, Giovanni Visconti of Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli and Liquigas–Cannondale duo Kristijan Koren and Maciej Paterski clear of the field. Hutarovich out-sprinted his rivals to take the team's first victory in Italy, since Bradley McGee won the prologue stage of the 2004 Giro d'Italia in Genoa.[49] Three days later, Hutarovich finished second to Anthony Ravard of Ag2r–La Mondiale at the Châteauroux Classic in a large field sprint.[50]

The team earned another respectable result on the World Tour stage, at the following weekend's GP Ouest-France in Plouay. Gérard finished in sixth place, while Offredo also managed to finish in the top ten, in tenth place.[51] Vichot took his second French Road Cycling Cup victory of the season, in September's Tour du Doubs, taking a solo victory by 16 seconds over the main field. Ladagnous and Geslin also finished well for the team, placing fourth and fifth respectively.[52] The victory also allowed the squad to take the lead in the teams points standings; a lead that the team would not lose. The same day, stagiaire Schmidt finished inside the top ten of the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens.[53] Soupe made it into the breakaway of the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen event, but it failed to survive until the end of the race, falling some 10 km (6.2 mi) shy of the finish. Hutarovich contended in the sprint, but could finish no higher than sixth place.[54]

Hutarovich later finished second in Paris–Brussels behind Team Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov,[55] before a sixth place the day after, in the Grand Prix de Fourmies.[56] On the same day as the Grand Prix de Fourmies, the squad recorded their best result in a World Tour single-day race, at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in Canada. Geslin was part of a four-man move that established a lead of almost five minutes on the road, after 40 km (25 mi).[57] The breakaway did not materialise until the end; instead the quartet were caught on the fifteenth of the race's seventeen laps. From the descent of Mont Royal on the final lap, Fédrigo attacked along with Movistar Team rider Rui Costa and Stefan Denifl of Leopard Trek and the trio managed to break clear of the field, holding a lead of over fifteen seconds within the closing stages. Denifl faded with 150 metres (490 ft) left, and Costa out-sprinted Fédrigo to take victory on the line. Four seconds behind, Vichot finished in eighth place in a sprint of over 20 riders.[58] Another victory occurred in the middle of September with Roux taking the honours in the Tour de la Somme,[59] prior to leaving for the UCI Road World Championships in Denmark.[60] Bouhanni finished fifth, after being helped towards the front by Roux, before he attacked in the closing stages of the race. The same day, Hutarovich earned another top-five placing, by finishing fifth in the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen.[61]

Roux and Roy finished second in Duo Normand behind Garmin–Cervélo duo Thomas Dekker and Johan Vansummeren,[62] while on the same day, Delage finished ninth in the Grand Prix d'Isbergues.[63] In October, Pinot finished ninth in the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli.[64] On the same day at Paris–Tours, after a previous breakaway had been caught with 60 km (37 mi) remaining, a group of fourteen riders including Gérard and Delage managed to create a gap to the peloton.[65] The first move from the leaders came from Gérard, 14 km (8.7 mi) out, and he stayed away on his own for a time, before being caught on the final climb of the Côte de l'Epan.[65] Delage's efforts to bring teammate Gérard back into contact with Greg Van Avermaet and Vacansoleil–DCM's Marco Marcato failed, and they eventually finished sixth and tenth respectively.[65] Hutarovich earned the team's final victory of the season in the Nationale Sluitingsprijs two days later, beating Landbouwkrediet neo-pro Joeri Stallaert by around 10 centimetres (3.9 in), and also left Skil–Shimano rider Kenny van Hummel unhappy in relation to a possible impeding in the closing stages.[66]

The team also sent squads to the Coppa Ugo Agostoni, the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, the Grand Prix de Wallonie, Omloop van het Houtland, the Tour de Vendée, Binche–Tournai–Binche, Paris–Bourges, the Giro dell'Emilia, the Giro di Lombardia and the Chrono des Nations, but placed no higher than 11th in any of these races.

Casar was the team's de facto leader for the race, with Bonnet, Delage, Jeannesson, Meersman, Pauriol, Roux, Roy and Vichot making up the nine-man outfit.[99] Casar's position came at the non-inclusion of Fédrigo, who elected to skip the race – as did Hutarovich[99] – due to fatigue and poor form.[100] Roy made the first breakaway of the Tour along with two other riders, and took the honours in the first intermediate sprint of the race, earning 20 points to the revised-for-2011 points classification.[101] The team's showing in the stage 2 team time trial was average, as they came home ninth of the 22 teams, 46 seconds off the winning pace set by Garmin–Cervélo.[102] Delage was in the day's breakaway on the third stage, with an advantage of eight minutes during one point of the stage; he also repeated the feat of Roy by taking maximum intermediate sprint points on the stage, and after being caught with 9 km (5.6 mi) remaining, he was awarded the most combative rider of the day.[103]

In his first Tour appearance, Arnold Jeannesson held the lead of the young rider classification for two days, and finished as the team's highest-placed rider, in 15th place overall.

Roy kept the award with the team for his performance on stage four; after 9 km (5.6 mi), he established the breakaway with four other riders but they could not muster a big enough advantage for a stage victory, and were caught in the closing stages.[104] Roy made another move on the road in stage 5, linking up with Team Europcar's Thomas Voeckler for an attack with 32 km (19.9 mi) remaining. After establishing a lead of around a minute, the main field brought them back to within sight, where Voeckler attacked with 3 km (1.9 mi) left, but he like Roy, fell short of winning the stage.[105] Bonnet took the team's first top-ten placing of the race, by finishing eighth. FDJ continued their trend of having a rider in each day's breakaway; Roux was the rider in question on stage 6, but was dropped by two other riders and was caught by the main field with 38 km (23.6 mi) remaining. In the sprint finish, Vichot and Jeannesson both made it into the top ten placings, in sixth and tenth respectively.[106]

On stage 7, Delage made it into his second breakaway of the Tour, and was joined by Meersman, and two other riders, who enjoyed an advantage of up to eight minutes on the road, but were swept up by the field with 14 km (8.7 mi) remaining. Bonnet finished in fifth place in the mass sprint to the line, but the squad finished a man down on the stage, as Pauriol abandoned the race with a broken collarbone, after a large crash in the field which also eliminated several other riders.[107] Casar's breakaway on stage 9 was successful as he joined several other riders in making it to the finish before the main pack had caught them; despite not offering a challenge to Voeckler or Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank), he still finished the stage third,[108] but was not enough for him to break into the top 30 in the general classification. A third breakaway for Delage on stage 11 provided him with a second combativity award of the race, having been out front for around 150 km (93.2 mi). Bonnet again cracked the top ten placings on a stage,[109] just ahead of Jeannesson, with Meersman also finishing inside the top 15.

As the race moved into its second half, the squad continued their attacking mentality, as Roy made the breakaway on stage 12, and was out front for the entire day until part-way up the final climb to Luz Ardiden, when he and companion Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) were caught with 8 km (5.0 mi) remaining by Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma–Lotto) and Euskaltel–Euskadi's Samuel Sánchez; the latter pair eventually went on to finish in first and second on the stage. Jeannesson, with a twelfth place stage finish, assumed the lead of the young rider classification from Rabobank's Robert Gesink.[110] Roy attacked again the next day, on the hors catégorie Col d'Aubisque climb, and held a lead of two minutes with 30 km (18.6 mi) left on the stage, but was caught by Garmin–Cervélo's Thor Hushovd – a rider who had been dropped by Roy on the Aubisque – and was also passed by Cofidis rider David Moncoutié before the finish. Roy did however receive his second combative rider award of the race, and also assumed the lead of the mountains classification.[111]

A trio of FDJ riders – Casar, Delage and Vichot – were in the breakaway on stage 14; Casar at one point held the lead of the race overall on the stage, but ultimately was not to last until the end. Casar remained at the head of the field for most of the stage, and indeed made a solo attack with 25 km (15.5 mi) to go on the stage.[112] He held the lead onto the slopes of the Plateau de Beille, but was eventually caught with around 7 km (4.3 mi) left. His efforts rewarded the team with yet another most combative rider of the day award. Roy and Jeannesson both lost their respective classification leads to Vanendert and Rigoberto Urán (Team Sky).[113] Delage and Roy were part of breakaways either side of the race's second race day, with Roy achieving a better result; he finished seventh on stage 16, into Gap.[114] Casar took another third-place finish on stage 17, as the race ventured into Italy and the stage finish in Pinerolo.[115] Delage launched the team's final breakaway of the race on stage 18, but as was the case with his other attempts, he failed to profit in the end results.[116] Jeannesson finished the Tour as the team's best placed rider, 21 minutes down in 15th place.[117] Roy was given the honour of being the most combative rider of the Tour.[118]