Almost six months after a heavy training crash, Alessandro Ballan is back and ready to start racing again. His first race will be at Thursday’s GP Kanton Aargau in Gippingen, Switzerland.

Ballan broke his left leg in two places and fractured a rib in a training ride crash during a team training camp in Spain on the 20th of December. He needed surgery to remove his spleen and later his appendix while recovering.

With his recovery now complete, Ballan is looking forward to his comeback: “I feel like a child who has been waiting for a toy for a long time. I feel good and have been living and training at altitude for 12 days, so my sensations are good. But I don't know how I will do in the races because of the changes of pace.”

The former world champion has set small goals for his first race: “My goal is simply to finish. I also want to thank all the people who have been close to me in this period, particularly my family, my friends and the team.”

“It will be great to have him [Ballan] there and we have a team that can really do something,” said BMC sports director Max Sciandri. “Greg Van Avermaet is riding well and hopefully some of the guys who did the Giro d'Italia are coming out of it in good condition.”
 

BMC Racing Team  line-up for the GP Kanton Aargau, June 6th:
Alessandro Ballan (ITA), Adam Blythe (GBR), Mathias Frank (SUI), Martin Kohler (SUI), Sebastian Lander (DEN), Michael Schär (SUI), Greg Van Avermaet (BEL), Danilo Wyss (SUI).