With 5 teams folding at the end of the year, several riders are left without a contract for the 2014 season. Expecting the situation to improve for 2015, the Dutch association of professional cyclists VVBW is trying to create a continental team that will allow Belgian and Dutch riders to get through next season before continuing their career on a bigger team.

Euskaltel, Vacansoleil, Sojasun, Crelan-Euphony and Champion System will all fold at the end of the season and this has left many riders anxious for their future. Several riders have already announced their retirements while several others are desperately looking for a team for 2014.

Crelan-Euphony and Vacansoleil both had many Dutch and Belgian riders on their rosters and many of those now face an early retirement. To avoid this, the Dutch association of professional cyclists VVBW is now trying to create a continental that will help those riders save their careers.

"It could be a team that consists partly of Dutch and partly of Belgian riders without a team," VVBW president Bobbie Traksel told Cyclingonline.nl. "But it is also important for young riders who would normally have joined the pro ranks."

Traksel is now looking for money that will help turn the idea into reality.

"We have received some money but we still need sponsors as a professional needs to earn more than an apple and an egg. Everyone is willing to sacrifice but pro cyclists also have to pay their mortgages and support their families."

Traksel is one of the riders who has been hit by the crisis as his Champion System team is folding at the end of the season. He points Kenny Van Hummel, Wouter Mol, Maurits Lammertink and Bert-Jan Lindeman (all Vacansoleil) and Crelan-Euphony's Reinier Honig as rider that could benefit from the new team.

Traksel doesn't expect the team to be a long-term project but hopes that it will allow some riders to keep going until 2015 where the situation has hopefully improved.

"I have been a professional for 13 years and I have never seen anything like this," he said. "Five teams will fold and will leave 135 riders without a contract. Some of them find it a good time to retire and others are still paid by their former teams and so can easily sign a minimum contract. The others face great uncertainty until 2015 where things seem to improve. There are new initiatives - like Fernando Alonso's team - and it would be nice if we can help bridge the gap between the years. And yes, I will also help myself

but we can really do something for our riders. I hope that there are companies with a passion for cycling. They can always contact me but they need to do it quickly - time is running out."