Nick Nuyens (Garmin-Sharp) has had two disastrous years after he magical 2011 season when he won both the Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders. The Belgian admits that he contemplated retirement when a broken hip prevented him from reaching his best form but he now feels that he has a chance to return to his best level.

Nick Nuyens did a big coup when in his first year with the Saxo Bank team became a surprise winner of the Tour of Flanders. Despite being dropped from the group of favourites early in the race, the Belgian did an extremely smart race to return to the front in time for the decisive attack by Fabian Cancellara and Sylvain Chavanel being launched and he ended up beating those two in the final sprint.

A few weeks earlier, Nuyens had won the Dwars door Vlaanderen in what was a magical year for the Belgian classics specialist. One year later he was looking forward to returning to his preferred races with the number 1 dossard but things started to unravel in the Paris-Nice when he crashed in the prologue.

Nuyens was left with a broken hip and since then he has been unable to reach his best form. Prior to the 2013 season, he signed with Garmin-Sharp where he was expected to join forces with Johan Vansummeren as the leader in the cobbled races but his spring campaign ended when he abandoned E3 Harelbeke.

Towards the end of the year, things started to improve for Nuyens who did a big part of the Vuelta in the service of Tyler Farrar and ended his season at the Tour of Beijing. He is now hopeful that he can return to his best level.

"I hope I'm ready for the spring," he told Sporza. "For the first time in a long time, I felt that I could build on an equal basis with my colleagues."

Nuyens admits that he contemplated retirement during his to disastrous seasons.

"That sometimes flashed through my mind. Perfectly normal, I think," he said. "When you've won a monument like the Tour of Flanders and then a year later you're at the back hanging between the cars…

"But I like to do my job and I wanted to come back. I only want to stop when I'm tired of it.”

This year Garmin-Sharp have had a very unusual build-up to the season. The Tour Down Under, the Tour de San Luis, the Dubai Tour, and the Challenge Mallorca have been the only races for the American team which has chosen to holds its pre-season training camp in the middle of February. Hence, Nuyens has only been racing in Mallorca and so he doesn't have to big expectations for the Belgian opening weekend where he just expects to do his job.

"Whether it's helping a teammate or going into the finale myself, I want to enjoy myself during the race," he said. Nonetheless, he has a clear idea of who will come to the forefront in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and he points to a new teammate as one of the favourites.

"Lotto-Belisol with Jürgen Roelandts and Sebastian Langeveld with us won't be far away," Nuyens said. "And you've got Sep Vanmarcke too. You often have the same names, but in Omloop there is always a surprise or two."

Nuyens won the race in 2005.