After stating recently that he believes he still hasn’t fully recovered from the fractured hip he suffered in last year’s Paris-Nice, and then withdrawing exhausted from Tirreno Adriatico, Garmin-Sharp rider Nick Nuyens has spoken of his frustration and said that he’s uncertain when he can get back to form.
“I am having a thorough check-up at the moment. I have to wait and find out what's wrong,” he told Sporza.
“My Garmin team thinks I have a virus, because I also have a rash on my body,” he said. “But I myself think that the problem still lies with my hip. Maybe I forced too much because I wanted to do a lot in the winter.”
Nuyens took his biggest success two years ago when he won the Ronde van Vlaanderen while with Team Saxo Bank. The performance was the most significant of his career and it was expected that it could help him to move on to a new level, but instead it was the high point.
“The last time I’ve felt good was when I won the Tour of Flanders,” he told Sporza recently.
Nuyens fractured his wrist that year and while he rebuilt his form and was looking forward to defending his title in 2012, he crashed in last year’s Paris-Nice. It was initially believed his injuries were minor, but subsequent medical examination revealed that he had fractured his hip.
Since then he’s tried to come back, but he feels that he still cannot get his power up. As a result he struggled in Tirreno-Adriatico, being dropped in the team time trial, finishing second-last on stage two and and then withdrawing the following day.
Given that the Classics are his big focus of the season, he’s frustrated not to be in the right shape heading towards those events. “This does weigh a lot mentally. I only get a few chances each year and I'm now starting to doubt whether it will be all be alright again. Everything should fall into place at once, which is not the case at the moment.”
Nuyens will hope that the tests will determin if a virus is indeed the issue, or if there is another reason for his weakness.