Thor Hushovd has endured a horrid time in recent years since joining BMC and will now no longer get to lead the team in the Spring Classics.

He will start Sunday’s Tour of Flanders in a supporting role for Greg van Avermaet and Taylor Phinney will be BMC’s plan B should things go wrong.

“If you want to be the leader, then you have to perform as a leader. I haven’t done that but Greg has done it for the past three years so it’s normal that he is the leader on Sunday,” Hushovd said. “But it’s still my goal to be there in the final. If you have more riders in the final then it’s better for all of us.”

Hushovd will now ride Flanders for the thirteenth time in his career but laughs of the idea that he is now a Flandrian.

“I think if I’d won it once, I’d feel more like a Flandrian,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d done it that many times. I’m happy to be part of BMC to support Greg here. He’s been our strongest rider for these kind of races and I think we have a really strong team in general. We’re going to race aggressively and try to be there with a few riders in the final.”

Hushovd had a poor year last season but began to find form with a win in his National Road Race as well as 2 stages in the Tour of Poland and the opening stage of the Tour of Beijing.

He is winless in 2014 so far and had to pull out of E3 but rode to a strong ninth place in Gent-Wevelgem.

“I’ve been feeling good. I was unhappy after E3 but Gent-Wevelgem went much better. My form is on the up,” said Hushovd, who was enigmatic in describing his reasons for abandoning at Harelbeke. “I went left at a corner and the bunch went right,” he smiled.

Hushovd gave two reasons why may be able to win tomorrow.

1. He may be able to get into a mid-race breakaway and win just like his old teammate Johan van Summeren did in the 2011 Paris-Roubaix

2. A large bunch sprint in Oudenaarde.

“You’ve seen in bikes races that anything can happen. It’s possible that a bigger group can come back or else maybe I can follow the moves and stay away. That’s my chance,” he said.