The ambition of Team Sky, the new British road-racing team that will enter Pro-Tour competition next year, is so great that an approach has been made to Alberto Contador, the No 1 rider in the world.

The team have been so bullish about their assault on professional cycling that they have declared their intention to have a British Tour de France winner within five years. However, targeting Contador suggests that the British team could have a foreign winner even sooner.

Contador’s agent, his brother Fran, explained yesterday that contact was made by Team Sky this year. Who Contador will ride for next year remains unclear, although there are a number of teams interested and it seems that Team Sky are no longer in the running, having turned their interest away from Contador and in the direction of Bradley Wiggins, the British rider who finished fourth in this year’s Tour de France. Yet that Team Sky even contacted Contador shows that theirs will not be a softly-softly newcomer’s approach.

Contador is contracted to Astana, the team from Kazakhstan. There are a number of teams interested in buying him out of his contract and there is every chance that Contador may become a free agent because of the financial problems that have hounded Astana this year. Astana could have their Pro-Tour licence revoked or they could fold; either possibility would probably suit Contador, who needs a team with financial muscle to put him at the centre of a group of riders who can help him to defend his Tour title.

“We have to see what happens with Astana first,” Contador said yesterday at the Cycle Show in Earls Court, where he was making an appearance on behalf of SIS, his sponsor.

A number of Astana’s best riders have followed Lance Armstrong to another new team, Team RadioShack, leaving Contador looking exposed. The return of Armstrong to the Tour next year in a team he has handpicked to ride to his purposes presents a fascinating challenge for the Spaniard.

A distinct possibility remains that Contador will join Garmin-Slipstream, the American team. This would allow Garmin-Slipstream to release Wiggins into the grateful arms of Team Sky.

Contador yesterday tipped Wiggins to be one of his closest rivals on the Tour next year. “Towards the end of this year’s Tour, Wiggins was very dangerous,” he said. “In 2010, I think he will be even more dangerous.”

The other teams chasing Contador are Quick Step, from Belgium, and Caisse d’Epargne, from France.

One signing that Team Sky were able to announce yesterday was a three-year deal with Pinarello to be the team’s official bike supplier.

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