Like 2009 and 2010, the 2011 race had a prologue, three road stages, a criterium and a time trial. Unlike the 2010 race, though, the criterium was measured by distance instead of time. In addition, the race had stages finish in
Ogden and
Provo, reducing its focus on
Salt Lake City and
Park City. Although the significantly stronger UCI-ranked field figured to create a more competitive race, a breakaway on the mountainous first stage gave four riders—Leipheimer and Brajkovič from RadioShack and Sevilla and
Sergio Henao from Gobernación—a lead over all the other contenders of more than 2:30. Leipheimer then used second-place finishes in stages 3 and 5 to defend his championship and become the race's first repeat winner.
Prologue August 9, 2011 -- Utah Olympic Park, individual time trial, The uphill prologue required the riders to time trial along a road running parallel to the
bobsled run at the
Utah Olympic Park in
Park City. Because of the nature of the climb, most cyclists used their regular bikes instead of time-trial bikes. Colombian and Spanish riders took the first three places, with
Sergio Henao of the Colombian team Gobernacion de Antioquia showing his climbing skills by winning the sprint.
Stage 1 August 10, 2011 -- Ogden to Ogden, Stage 1 featured three loops of a 61 km course around Ogden, with each loop featuring an ascent of North Ogden Pass Road. Jesse Anthony of was the last survivor of an early breakaway and then managed to join up with a four-man breakaway that formed on the final ascent. In the end, as the four riders in the breakaway worked to gain time on the rest of the field, Anthony was able to sit on the breakaway and then attack it at the end for the stage win. However, the other four riders in the break established a huge advantage of over 2' 30" on their main rivals in the general classification. 116 riders remained in the race after this stage.
Stage 2 August 11, 2011 -- Lehi to Provo, Stage 2 featured rolling hills but was largely flat and was anticipated to finish in a bunch sprint, with
Elia Viviani of and
Jake Keough of favored. However,
Jack Bauer from managed to get a jump on both sprinters due to two crashes inside of 7 km, took off with a kilometer to go and was able to hold on for victory. Only three riders failed to finish the stage.
Stage 3 August 12, 2011 -- Miller Motorsports Park, individual time trial, Stage 3 was contested on a similar but slightly longer course than the 2009 and 2010 Tours used. American
Tejay van Garderen of achieved his first professional victory on his 23rd birthday by edging Leipheimer of . However, Leipheimer took over the general classification lead, with his teammate
Jani Brajkovič taking over second. 112 riders remained in the race.
Stage 4 August 13, 2011 -- Salt Lake City, Stage 4 was a criterium around the state capital in
Salt Lake City, using part of the course employed for the prologue in the previous two tours. The loop was around 12 km, and the riders were required to make 11 circuits of it, including a 13% climb up East Capitol Street in each circuit. Another Colombian rider,
Janier Acevedo from Gobernacion de Antioquia, won the stage and returned his team to the lead in the teams classification. After this stage, 104 riders remained in the race, meaning that only a total of 16 riders had left the race, but among the riders failing to complete this stage was fifth-place Jesse Anthony, who fell ill overnight.
Stage 5 August 14, 2010 -- Kimball Junction to Snowbird, The final stage of the 2010 Tour, Stage 5, was identical to the previous year's final stage. It began from Kimball Junction, just outside Park City, and trekked for 161 km through the mountains until ending on a mountaintop finish at the
Snowbird ski resort. The top two riders in the general classification, Leipheimer and
Sergio Henao, broke away from the rest of the elite riders to win the stage, with Henao finishing slightly ahead. Leipheimer's finish also propelled him to a one-point victory in the "King of the Mountains" competition. 16 people failed to finish this stage, but the race ended with 88 of the original 120 contestants completing the tour. == Overall ==