The 2011 season for began in January with the Tour de San Luis and ended in October at the Japan Cup. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
The team had 30 victories in 2011, second-most among top teams behind only . The team's most prolific winners were Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani, who accounted for 22 of them. The team failed to relive their great successes of 2010 in the Grand Tours – Ivan Basso, though the reigning Giro d'Italia champion, declined to defend that crown and focused instead on the Tour de France. Vincenzo Nibali was instead the leader for the Giro, and again for the Vuelta a España, where he did return to defend his championship. The team took two stage wins each in the Giro and Vuelta, but did not mount a serious threat for the overall crown in any of the three. Elsewhere, the team's principal successes were in single-day races, especially those in their home country Italy, winning seven such races.
Team 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
Before the spring season and the races known as classics, Viviani won the first single-day race of the season held in Italy, the Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi. The finish was a field sprint, and Viviani came in first after a leadout from Peter Sagan, who held on for fourth. The race was noteworthy as well for the absence of six-time reigning champion Alessandro Petacchi from the team's Italian rivals . Viviani also won the first Tour de Mumbai race, and nearly won the second, finishing just centimeters behind 's Robert Hunter.
Spring classics
Basso won the Gran Premio di Lugano in late February. After Caruso launched an attack that effectively softened the field, Basso's winning move came as his teammate was caught. He drew 's Fabio Duarte with him, and defeated him in the sprint 16 seconds ahead of the front of the remaining field. The team came to the first monument race of the season, Milan–San Remo, without a real field sprinter, despite that race's tendency to end in a sprint. When a crash occurred on the Le Manie climb from the finish line, effectively splitting the race into two groups, Nibali and captain Alessandro Ballan struck a deal wherein both squads would send men to the front of the leading group. This was both to keep the group out ahead of the second so that sprinters left behind like Óscar Freire, Mark Cavendish, and Tyler Farrar would not be able to contest the win, but also to potentially get rid of the few sprinters that had made the split, namely Tom Boonen, Alessandro Petacchi, and Heinrich Haussler. The tactic was successful; BMC Racing Team and Liquigas-Cannondale, along with and , effectively drove the leading group such that their advantage never fell below one minute. Nibali tried to attack for victory on the Poggio, knowing that even among the small group that was left he was not likely to have the best finishing sprint. Seven riders followed his acceleration, and all seven eventually passed him, leaving Nibali eighth on the day. After Peter Sagan had showed strong form at Gent–Wevelgem, the squad was touted as fielding contenders at the second monument race, the Tour of Flanders. The squad failed to be at all competitive, however; only Koren and Oss finished the race, with six others, including Sagan, abandoning before the conclusion. Their best-placed rider being 95th was criticized as a major disappointment. Nibali rode Liège–Bastogne–Liège as his final tune-up prior to the Giro d'Italia. While race winner Philippe Gilbert and the Schleck brothers, who rounded out the podium with the Belgian, slipped away on the Côte de Roche aux Faucons and were not caught, Nibali instigated the chase group that formed on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas. He finished eighth. Afterward, he said he was satisfied with his performance, since he had not gone into the red to follow Gilbert and the Schlecks and put in a good ride on the last climb. He was, however, spent from his effort on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas and could not sprint for fourth place.
The team also sent squads to the Montepaschi Strade Bianche, the GP Miguel Indurain, Paris–Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and the Giro di Toscana, but placed no higher than 11th in any of these races.
Fall races
The team also sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián, Tre Valli Varesine, Trofeo Melinda, GP Ouest-France, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Memorial Marco Pantani, the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli and the Amstel Curaçao Race, but placed no higher than 11th in any of these races.