After being heavily disappointed with his performance in Essen last Saturday, Sven Nys made the decision to stay away from competition for the remainder of 2014. Two days later, Nys partially comes back from that decision and has announced that he will return to action on December 28 in Diegem.

After skipping the world cup cross in Namur yesterday, Nys will also skip the world cup cross in Heusden-Zolder next Friday. After bad luck and bad performances in the first three races, Nys was already out of contention for the world cup.

He does however still have a chance to win the other two major competitions and, unlike earlier reports, will start in the Superprestige cross of Diegem on December 28 and the BPost-Bank Trophy race in Loenhout on Decemer 30. He will also start in his own race on New-years day in Baal. 

"All the emails and text messages have meant a lot," he told Het Laatste Nieuws. "Therefore I am certainly not considering retirement. I'll retire in March 2016. Now I only want one thing: to race as soon as possible."

Nys does not know whether he will return to his best before the end of the season.  "I hope so but I can't say anything with certainty. If the problem can be solved, I will do so immediately. Maybe my body just tells me: 'Training, yes. Racing, no.

"The Worlds in Tabor is highly uncertain. I am a" feel good"-rider and can only perform if I feel good about myself. For now I make me no illusions. I will not suddenly get to my best level after a long bad period."

However, he has not completely shelved his rainbow jersey ambitions. "When I'm good, I am always in the top three. One thing is certain: I certainly won't retire."