Fernando Alonso turned down buying Euskaltel-Euskadi last year in favour of creating his own team from nothing. But he has since found out that it will be a difficult process and he may run out of time and is believed to be reverting back to Plan A: buy a current team, with Dutch outfits Belkin and Giant-Shimano both looking for finances for next year to keep going.

“Until August 1 [due to UCI rules], you cannot sign riders,” Alonso’s manager Luis García Abad told Spain’s Ciclo21 website. “And until November 1, if we’re lucky to have one, we can’t receive confirmation of a first division licence. We can’t make moves as a team simply because we are not one yet.”

“We’d have to organise everything in record time to have a team ready by January 1, 2015.”

This all looks good for the two Dutch outfits, with those the only two squads really viable for Alonso to buy.

American consumer electronics manufacturer, Belkin announced on June 17 that it would pull its team sponsorship. General Manager Richard Plugge said that he has “four or five contacts already” to continue the team. Giant-Shimano manager, Iwan Spekenbrink is also looking to secure his team’s future.

Both Dutch teams, however, denied today at the Tour de France that they are dealing with Alonso for the 2015. Marcel Kittel, Giant’s sprinter and winner in London, said that his “future is secure” but added that he did not know about any Alonso deal.

The 32-year-old Spaniard, who finished sixth in the British GP on Sunday, is friends with Alberto Contador and other cyclists and already in 2009, considered creating a team with Contador. At the Giro d’Italia, the last time he commented on his team, he said that he is serious about 2015.

“The desire, our intentions are for 2015,” Alonso said. “We are working on our project, but I’m in a world that I don’t know well. We want to create a team, a good team, taking F1 to cycling. It’s step by step for now.”

Alonso reportedly has €20m for five years in sponsorship ready from the UAE and it was initially said that he would announce the team structure and sponsorship details on the Tour’s first rest day, July 15. The date now appears uncertain, but with riders searching for contracts and teams for sponsors, the picture should become clearer as the Tour races towards Paris.