According to many sources from the inside of the professional peloton, it becomes more and more unlikely that hotly rumored few months ago Fernando Alonso Cycling Team (FACT) will be ready for next season.

There was a lot of fuss around Alonso’s attempts to enter the arena of professional cycling. First, when the renowned Formula One driver revealed his intention to rescue Euskaltel-Euskadi from folding last August, and then, after he decided to start his own project instead.

Huge expectations arose around the project, since Spanish driver reportedly attracted important sponsors from United Arab Emirates to support his team and convinced Paolo Bettini to give up on his position as Italian team’s coach to become manager in the new squad.

Last information referring to the Fernando Alonso Cycling Team said that Bettini was having a number of conversations with cyclists and their managers during the Tirreno-Adriatico, but the silence was deafening over the future if the project since then.

According to several team managers and rider representatives asked about the Alonso’s team just before the beginning of the Giro d’Italia, there was no movement around the future team during the last several weeks.

“We are not hearing anything from the Alonso people,” one rider agent told VeloNews. “This is the time of year when serious negotiations begin. It’s not a good sign if they are not talking to riders.”

As the professional peloton is a very hermetic place where any secrets are hard to be kept, contacted sources made it clear that there is no possibility that any contracts with prominent riders were discussed without other people involved in top-level cycling being aware of it.

“It seems like it’s completely stopped,” said one team manager. “We’d be hearing about it if they were approaching our riders. There is nothing. There’s no news.”

“Building a team is more than just signing riders. There is a lot of staff and infrastructure that goes behind that. It’s almost getting too late to even build up a team in time for next season,” another team manager said. “And there are not any teams closing down or mergers, at least not from what we’re hearing now, so it won’t be so easy to sign riders. I know our biggest riders are already under contract.”

With several top riders, including Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) running out of contracts this season, there is still a chance for Alonso to round up a team before 2015. As the time for serious contract negotiations starts now, however, it becomes more and more questionable whether the Formula One star is still interested in running a cycling squad, considering a silence around the project.