Oleg Tinkov has told Fernando Alonso to buy his own team rather than build one from scratch.

“My advice would be to buy a team. That’s what I did,” Tinkov told VeloNews. “I know he wants to do his own team, but you lose two to three years. I do not believe that next year he will perform to be in Tour.”

Tinkov purchased Saxo Bank last year for 6 million Euros and says that he found that much easier than building his own team, which he did in 2006 with Tinkoff Credit Systems.

Alonso was supposed to buy Euskaltel-Euskadi last year but the deal broke down, but now there are at least two major trams struggling to survive financially and Tinkov believes Alonso should seize his chance and purchase one.

“He’d be better off to buy a team,” Tinkov said. “I know he has his own consultants, but if I were him, I would look for a team that is struggling, and buy one of them.”

Howvere rumors are rife that Alonso has not been able to secure the team’s position and this has led to riders such as Peter Sagan, previously linked to Alonso, now being rumored to be signing with Tinkoff-Saxo for 2015. But should Alonso get involved in cycling, the transfer market would be an interesting battle between Tinkov, Alonso and some of the other teams with money, like BMC, Sky and Astana.

“I like the idea that Alonso is coming. He will bring his smart ideas from Formula One,” Tinkov said. “It’s very positive that he is coming to the sport. We will see more competition for riders, and maybe prices will go up, but overall it’s very good a guy like Alonso comes to cycling.”