any of them. Grand Tours Giro d'Italia The UCI considered a potential revoking of Vacansoleil-DCM's ProTeam licence in mid-February, which would stop the team from automatically being invited to any World Tour race and be demoted to a Professional Continental team, as they were in 2010. This licence issue came to light due to continued investigations into doping regarding two of the team's riders; Mosquera and Riccò. Mosquera had tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch at the 2010 Vuelta a España, while Riccò had been admitted to hospital earlier in February, amid allegations that he had carried out a self-administered autologous blood transfusion at his home. (For more information on the Riccò allegations, see the Dismissal of Riccardo Riccò section) Despite talk of a potential exclusion from the race due to these scandals, the team were included in the list of 23 teams admitted, on March 7, per UCI rules. Carrara was the team's leader for the race, while Božič and Hoogerland were named to the squad to aim for stage wins and breakaway representation. The team's showing in the stage 1 team time trial was average, as they came home 10th of the 23 teams, 37 seconds off the winning pace set by . Božič finished near the front of the field in the Giro's first road stage, taking fifth in the mass sprint finish to the second stage, in Parma. Hoogerland and Selvaggi made breakaway attempts on stages 7 and 8, but neither could hold a sustainable advantage until the end of each stage. Carrara moved into the top ten overall after stage 9, finishing 14th on the race's first summit finish, at Mount Etna. Selvaggi took the team's only top-ten placing in the second half of the race by finishing eighth in a mass sprint finish on stage 12, while Carrara eventually finished the race as the team's highest placed rider in the general classification, finishing 17th overall. Tour de France Feillu was the team's leader for the Tour, leading a youthful team into the race, with three riders – De Gendt, Poels and Ruijgh – eligible for the young rider classification. Westra made the first breakaway of the Tour along with two other riders, while the team finished 20th of the 22 teams in the team time trial. It was not until stage 3 that the team finished highly; Feillu finished second behind 's Tyler Farrar, with