Cadel Evans opens up about former teammate Alessandro Ballan's sacking from BMC

CADEL Evans has spoken for the first time about his former teammate Alessandro Ballan after the 2008 world road champion was sacked from the BMC Racing team.

Alessandro Ballan leads Team BMC up Gorge Road in 2011.

CADEL Evans has spoken for the first time about his former teammate Alessandro Ballan after the 2008 world road champion was sacked from the BMC Racing team in the wake of a two-year doping ban handed down by the Italian Olympic Committee on Saturday.

"I don't know all the details and so on,'' Evans said in a frank interview on the eve of his first international race of the year, the Tour Down Under in South Australia.

"The only things that appears to me that we must be the only profession in the world where for looking after your health and trying to be healthy you can ruin your career and all but ruin your life.

"As far as I understand it he was trying to treat his health.

"Having had a virus myself, at a certain point you have to be healthy. That's not whether you are a bike rider or not, that's just human. The two most important things in our life are our health and then everything else.''News_Image_File: Cadel Evans sits with Simon Gerrans before the Peoples Choice Classic.

When the suspension was handed down last week BMC racing sacked the Italian.

Ballan had previously been suspended by BMC due to allegations but after being cleared by the Swiss-American team, he resumed racing in May 2010.

''In accordance with the BMC Racing Team's strict anti-doping policy, Ballan is no longer a member of the BMC Racing Team,'' team president/general manager Jim Ochowicz said in a statement on the weekend.

The suspension runs from January 17, 2014 until January 16, 2016.News_Rich_Media: Giovanni Visconti was to have surgery on Sunday night after suffering a broken leg in the Tour Down Under.