Jurgen Roelandts hopes for a good fortune to finally come this spring after experiencing two last seasons spoiled by injuries and crashes. The Lotto-Belisol classics specialist lacked a powerful kick to join the decisive move is yesterday’s E3 Harelbeke, but still believes he can excel on the same roads he trains every day, backed by a strong team in the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

A bad luck effectively prevented Roelandts from living up to expectations during last two classics seasons as the chain of misfortune has been begun with a broken vertebra in 2012 Tour Down Under and continued with collarbone fracture just after his return to racing in the second part of the year, eye damage he suffered in 2013 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and being his by an organizer’s car during Gent-Wavelgem in a short succession.

Things were looking more promising for 28-year old Belgian from the beginning of the 2014 season, with podium places taken in stages at the Santos Tour Down Under and Tour of Qatar, concluded with a third spot in both general and points classification in the latter. Roelandts believes that tables have finally turned for him and hopes to improve on his results from cobbled classics this spring.

“It cannot go worse than last year, Roelandts told Cyclingnews.

"Two years ago I was injured and last year I had a lot of bad luck. I think I am in good condition and with a bit more luck than last year I can get some nice results."

In terms of results posted by the Belgian in Flemish classics last two years, third place taken in Ronde van Vlaanderen last season was the only highlight. There is no surprise that Roelandts managed to overcome all the bad luck to excel on the well-known home parcours, used by the rider in his everyday training rides, nor that the podium spot claimed in the race he always loved most didn’t fully satisfy him.

“I grew up in this area and I’ve always wanted to win Flanders, which is not easy. Now that I’ve been on the podium, I have achieved one goal. If someone were to say now that you can get third again or you can race for getting first, I would want to race for getting first and not third,” he said.

This year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen route has been altered again after the less demanding parcours of the previous edition was hugely criticized for making the race not selective enough. The Lotto-Belisol rider believes that things will pan out differently this time around with a significantly limited length of flat stretches between climbs and Koppenberg moved much closer to the finish.

“The Koppenberg comes later and the decision will be made there,” he said. “Before it was 80km to go and now it is 30 or 40km to go. It will be a big change. I haven’t looked so close at the route. It will be next week that I do the parcours and then I will know.”

Even though Roelandts didn’t manage to improve on his excellent last year’s podium result at E3 Harelbeke yesterday, he still hopes to make a good results in Ronde van Vlaanderen next week with a support of a strong Lotto-Belisol team, consisting of in-form Tony Gallopin and Jens Debusschere.

“I think we have a good team with (Tony) Gallopin coming into the selection for the Flemish classics. You have (Jens) Debusschere, who is in good condition and Pim Ligthart too. I think we have a very strong team, a team that doesn’t have to wait for the race, but can really make the race.”