Team Sky, formed to produce a British Tour de France winner, are close to finalising their squad for their debut season.

Dave Brailsford, whose day job is British Cycling's performance director, has spent much of the last month in detailed negotiations with some of the sport's top talents.

He has travelled with the Tour caravan because most of the riders' agents are there and he returned from France happy with his work.

He will not be able to make any official announcements until September 1, when cycling's 'transfer window' officially opens but he has secured most of his targets already.

"We've got 17 or so riders secured out of the 25," he told Press Association Sport.

"We had a target list and the majority of them are in the bag."

Brailsford admits he has "five or six key places to fill" and there has been speculation Bradley Wiggins might be one of them.

Certainly the notion of finding a British rider capable of winning the yellow jersey looks a lot less fanciful after Wiggins' fourth place in this year's Tour.

Wiggins is contracted to current team Garmin-Slipstream until the end of next year but his performances in the Tour mean he is expected to talk up a substantial pay rise on his current deal.

That could open the door to Brailsford should negotiations falter.

He has worked closely with Wiggins for the last seven years as part of the Team GB set-up and the Londoner continues to rely on support from British Cycling.

Team psychiatrist Steve Peters and coach Matt Parker played key roles in his Tour preparations.

Wiggins' sudden emergence as a Tour contender delighted Brailsford, who believes a change of mentality was more important than his training regime.

"His weight loss has been well documented but I think it's self-belief," he added.

"When those top riders are hurting before you, you think 'I do belong here.'"

One British rider unlikely to be in Sky colours next year is sprint master Mark Cavendish, who won his sixth stage in this year's Tour on the Champs Elysees yesterday.

The 24-year-old ought to be hard to dislodge from Columbia - the team is built around the Manxman and a move to a team whose avowed aim is to produce an overall Tour winner rather than a winner of multiple stages would make little sense.

Cavendish would also be a costly investment - after Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador maybe the costliest - although Brailsford is not short of funds after securing a £30million sponsorship deal with Sky.

He admits the publicity behind the deal has created a 'Chelsea effect' with some riders asking for unrealistic contracts.

"It's about having a plan, doing your homework, knowing how much you're willing to pay and knowing what's important to you," said Brailsford.

"People are trying it on for sure - the reality is we are pretty sure what people's market values are."