Team Sky and British Cycling are investigating forming a development team which would have Sir Bradley Wiggins as their leader and figurehead from midway through 2015 into 2016, when the 2012 Tour de France winner hopes to bow out with a bid for an Olympic medal in Rio. Wiggins is currently contracted to Sky, with negotiations taking place about the future form of his contract, and this is apparently seen as one way of securing his future.

“We’re still discussing ways of supporting Brad’s Olympic ambitions in Rio, but [which] would also explore the fantastic developmental opportunities which could exist in order to support the next Bradley Wiggins,” said Team Sky’s head, Sir Dave Brailsford. “We’re looking at that from various different angles, and there are positive opportunities which I am sure we can make happen.”

The move would reconcile several issues: Wiggins has made it clear that he feels his days of racing at the highest level are numbered, having said that he does not feel he will race a Grand Tour again, and having added at last year’s Tour of Britain that he may not even contest the overall title at lesser stage races in the future. That in turn places his future at Sky in question, but he will need to race on the road to some extent in the run-in to Rio in order to build his fitness for the track. Team Sky, for their part, are likely to have to found a development team in 2017 when the UCI changes its rules on team structure, and “Team Wiggins” – while not a full development team – would mean the foundations for that would be in place.

Additionally, the current team pursuit squad within British Cycling is disparate, with riders such as the London gold medallists Steven Burke and Ed Clancy, and Rio hopefuls like Andy Tennant racing for a variety of teams – Team Sky, British-based squads such as Madison and Rapha-Condor-JLT, and the Great Britain under-23 academy – all of which have different calendars. Bringing them together under a “Team Wiggins” banner would resolve that in the runup to Rio. Brailsford did something similar in the buildup to Beijing by founding the Halfords team to enable Nicole Cooke to pursue her Olympic ambitions.

“Sir Bradley is under contract to Team Sky and negotiations for next year are ongoing,” said a spokesman for his management agency XIX. “There will be no announcement on his 2015 race calendar until October at the earliest.”

It is, however, public knowledge that Wiggins wants to race Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders in 2015, but to do so he would need to ride for a WorldTour team. He has also said that he wants to tackle the World Hour record at the end of June.

One option would be for him to ride for Sky until Roubaix, and then switch to track preparation with the putative development team until Rio – a mid-season move which is apparently possible within the current rules. Once that had happened, however, he would not be able to return to Sky.

The Great Britain Performance head Shane Sutton – who was heavily involved in Wiggins’s 2012 Tour win – said he would welcome such a move. “There’s no better opportunity for a rider to be given the chance to follow in the footsteps of Sir Brad. I’m not sure what his plans are, I don’t think anything is set is stone.

“From an inspirational point of view, what people would aspire to when they pull on a GB jersey it’s to be Sir Brad, so for us if Brad was to get involved in any way via setting up a pathway that would be fantastic for us.”

The Guardian understands that the suggested size for the team is between eight and 10 riders and that the proposed level would be Continental, two tiers lower than Wiggins’ current level at Sky.