2011 Leopard Trek season

The 2011 season for Leopard Trek /ˈleɪoʊpɑːrd trɛk/, its first, began in January at the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every race in the UCI World Tour. The team formed for 2011 as a Luxembourgian national project and boasts that nation's two premier riders, Andy and Fränk Schleck. Several riders from the Schleck brothers' former Team Saxo Bank joined the new team.

The team was built for strong showings in the classic cycle races, and includes the best classics rider from the 2010 season, world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. Though Cancellara did not win any race that awarded points to the UCI World Tour, he consistently placed highly enough that he was briefly the world number one rider in the midst of the classics season. Thanks to Cancellara's performances and the Schleck brothers both finishing on the podium at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the team was also in the top spot for a time.

Team member Wouter Weylandt died after crashing during stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia, leading to the team's mass withdrawal the next day. Though he won a stage with a long solo breakaway in the mountains, and wore the race leader's yellow jersey for a day, Andy Schleck was runner-up at the Tour de France for the third consecutive year.^{[N 2]} Brother Fränk joined him on the podium in third place.

The team won its final race under the Leopard name, with Oliver Zaugg finishing first at the Giro di Lombardia. For 2012, the team was set to merge with the American Team RadioShack, under the new name RadioShack–Nissan. Though most of that team's management and sponsors were to come on board, the resultant squad continued to be based in Luxembourg under the same license, meaning it is a continuation of this franchise and not the American one.
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