Sir Bradley Wiggins has yet to sign a new contract with Team Sky for 2015, and the ante was raised well in advance of the transfer period when the head directeur sportif at the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE squad suggested the team may be interested in signing the 2012 Tour de France winner. Matt White said Wiggins is “definitely a rider who would fit into this group”.

Wiggins’ management company, 19, had no comment to make. Earlier this year, however, in response to rumours that the Olympic time-trial champion had been contacted by a new team run by the Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, 19 stated that Wiggins had no plans to leave Sky, adding that he had been made an offer by Sky but would wait until later in the season to consider his options.

“Wiggo has made it public that his focus would be the Olympics in 2016 ... but we have a history, for sure. I would love to work with Wiggo,” White told the Sydney Morning Herald. The pair worked together at the Garmin-Slipstream team when the Londoner made his Tour de France breakthrough with fourth place in 2009, before leaving the US team for Sky. White added: “I haven’t spoken to him for a while … but he is definitely a rider who would fit into this group.

“We would have to know what his plans are for next the two years. Obviously, 2016 would be a write-off for the Tour, but he is a guy who could definitely fit in. His ambitions at Sky are certainly different to a year ago.”

Since his annus mirabilis of 2012 Wiggins has not shown Grand Tour winning form, although this year he has expressed his determination to support Chris Froome in his defence of his Tour title, and Wiggins looked to be in his best form since 2012 in winning the Tour of California this month.

There is, however, currently no certainty that Team Sky will allow Wiggins to ride this year’s Tour de France, given his historically poor relationship with their Tour leader, Froome. Although Wiggins has said he cannot envisage finishing his career at a team other than Sky but given the size of his current salary,, renegotiated after his Tour win, the team will face a dilemma over what terms to offer to keep him in the fold for 2015 and 2016, when he has said he will target the Rio Olympic Games. Those factors could in theory prompt him to switch teams.

Orica-GreenEDGE won two stages of the Tour de France and two in the Vuelta a España last year, as well as taking three early stages and leading the Giro d’Italia this May but the Australian team have yet to make an impact in the general classification in the Grand Tours, something they are keen to change. Their recent signings include the young Britons Simon and Adam Yates, who have performed well in their first professional season, and they were cited by White as possible Tour riders for the future.

“Our team is ready to have a Grand Tour rider next year,” said White. “We have identified people who would fit in to the culture of our team. They are people who are ready to come to the team and we are ready to support them.

“When you look at the likes of Esteban Chaves, Simon and Adam Yates, Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn, if we can keep that group for the next two years we will have one hell of a Tour de France team.”