Farrar brought down a bunch of cyclists during stage 10 on Tuesday after he clipped Roberto Ferrari’s wheel late in the day.
While there has been widespread criticism of Farrar in the Italian media, the Garmin-Sharp cyclist rejected suggestions he causes more crashes than most cyclists.
“I don’t know about that. I’ve crashed a few times in this race but every time, other than yesterday, I’ve been falling on a pile of people who go down in front of me,” Farrar told Cyclingnews on Wednesday.
“There were a lot of crashes in the first week, with the rain and slippery roads a factor, but it wasn’t like any of those were my fault.
“I don”t know, shit happens, I guess. We were going into the corner and they braked ahead of me. But I didn”t have room to brake, so the collision was unavoidable.”
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport , Farrar added that crashes in sprint finishes are more likely in ‘modern cycling’.
“There isn’t one team that is capable of controlling things in the sprint as say (Mario) Cipollini’s Saeco team once did or (Alessandro) Petacchi’s Fassa Bortolo team did in the past,” he said.
“Back then the peloton was lined out by the high speed and crashes were rare. Today there are lots of teams who are able to organise a lead out train. The bunch is spread out across the road and that makes crashes more probable. That’s modern cycling.
“This is also the best generation of sprinters in the history of cycling. There’s people like (Mark) Cavendish, (Marcel) Kittel, (John) Degenkolb, (Andre) Greipel, (Michael) Matthews, (Ben) Swift, (Nacer) Bouhanni, (Elia) Viviani and now (Giacomo) Nizzolo.”
Farrar nursed himself through Wednesday’s 249-kilometre stage between Collecchio and Savona to stay in the Giro.
The 29-year-old American sits 11th in the points classification with 53, well back on leader Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ.fr (220 points) but has vowed to battle on and finish the Giro.
“I’m alright. I’m a bit sore after the crash but nothing serious,” Farrar said.
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