Team Garmin-Cervelo sprinter Tyler Farrar was unable to defend his title in the Scheldeprijs race after being involved in a rough crash near the finish line of the Belgian semi-classic.

Farrar was poised to open up his sprint when a touch of wheels sent riders to the deck, taking defending race champion Farrar with them. Farrar was, therefore, unable to fight for the race victory in the sprint at the end of the hard-fought race. Mark Cavendish avoided the spill and won.

"I was coming into the finale, but got hit from behind, and went down hard. It's a pity because before I crashed, I was really well-positioned and I had good legs," Farrar commented after an initial medical checkup to confirm no major injuries.

"The team did everything perfectly all day. I would have loved to repeat here this year and that was the goal. I know a couple of other guys went down, including Wouter Weylandt, who's my best friend. I hope everyone's OK. I'm grateful for the hard work everyone did. Now we look ahead to Sunday to Paris-Roubaix 2011."

Garmin-Cervelo captain Farrar suffered cuts and bruising and will be further evaluated by team medical staff, but seems to have escaped serious injury.

Garmin-Cervélo team manager Jonathan Vaughters was impressed with how the team performed in the 200 km race and said the squad is doubly motivated heading into Sunday's "Hell of the North" Paris-Roubaix despite the bad-luck crash.

The team is expected to work for World Champion Thor Hushovd in the 2011 Paris-Roubaix. The race is perfectly well-suited for Hushovd who finished 2nd last year behind Fabian Cancellara.

"The team rode great today. They did everything right. Tyler was positioned perfectly in the finale when the crashed happened. He went down hard. It's just bad luck, but there's nothing the team could have done differently," Vaughters said.

"And despite the bad luck for Tyler (Farrar) in the finale at Scheldeprijs, the team put in a great race. Hope all the guys that crashed here today are ok. They rode hard and smart and left it all on the road. I'm proud of what we did here today and I think it just makes us more motivated for Sunday."

The 2011 Scheldeprijs race was won by Team HTC-HighRoad's Mark Cavendish ahead of Team Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov and Bulgarian Yauheni Hutarovich of Team FDJ.