Australia's Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and his Italian wife are adopting a one-year-old Ethiopian boy, according to a report.

Evans had hinted at a child, telling his Twitter followers on Tuesday he was "busy babysitting".

His wife, Chiara Passerini, who had posted an image via Twitter of her holding a small child's hand with the message "We had the most special Christmas of our lives", confirmed the couple had travelled to Ethiopia to adopt a child.

"We came here to bring home our little 12-month boy after months of paperwork," she told Australian newspaper The Age.

"We always felt the strong wish to adopt, so we decided to start our family through adoption."

The couple hope to bring the infant back to their home in Switzerland within weeks, she added.



Evans, 34, has said he wants to ride in at least two more Tour de France races before he considers retiring from the event, which he became the first Australian to win this year as well as the oldest winner in 88 years.

The cyclist is not expecting to race before February, having ruled out Australia's Tour Down Under in Adelaide in January as he looks at aiming for world and London Olympic glory in 2012 and defending his yellow jersey.

YahooNews