Garmin-Transitions' Roubaix wrecked by crashes

Tyler Farrar's Garmin-Transitions team was one of the first teams to depart Roubaix on Sunday and head back to the hotel in Belgium that they call home during the cobbled Classics.

The affable guys in argyle were just happy the race was over after several crashes at crucial points along the route wrecked their race and left Tyler Farrar, David Millar, Martijn Maaskant and Johan Vansummeren out of contention.

Danny Pate tweeted that only he and Steve Cozza didn't crash somewhere in the race, indicating the tough day the team had faced.

Maaskant was best placed rider for Garmin-Transitions in 22nd place, 7:05 behind Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). Farrar finished 84th, in a group of riders at 22:57, but he was declared outside the official time limit. Everybody else in the team was amongst the 85 riders that abandoned sometime during the race.

Farrar crashed just before the Arenberg Forest section of pavé, as the peloton fought for the key positions at the front.

"That was just about the worst place to crash and my race was over after that," he said to Cyclingnews.

"I wasn't hurt, but I had to take a bike change. I tried to chase back but it was impossible. That's why you have to be in the first 20 at the Forest if you want to be in the race. And I was two minutes down with a bike change."

"We just weren't lucky this time. I think Dave's first real Roubaix was perhaps a bit of a shock for him. Martijn crashed, Johan crashed too, so things didn’t go our way."

Farrar was disappointed to end his spring on a low but was happy with his form in recent weeks and especially his win at last Wednesday's Scheldeprijs.

"Yeah, it's disappointing because it's a race we were targeting, but the Spring as a whole has been a huge success for me and for the team. It would have been nice to end on a positive note, but we're pretty happy."