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Last years winning podium showing the various jerseys on offer. Polka Dot is the king of the mountains,The green is the sprinter and the yellow is the overall winner.
Every year it seems to go up as the popularity of this event increases around the world.Unlike other sports though the winner would have earned it the hard way. Compared to football this is a tough way to earn your living as a professional athlete. The total prize pool is only 2.3 Million Euros and when you look at how many competitors there are it isn't a big sum of money. 22 teams each with 8 riders and realistically there are only a few that have the expertise and skills required to win this race. It is held over 3 weeks testing everyone from time trialing to climbing massive mountain passes and it will find any weakness one may have.
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As you can see the winner gets the lions share and it trails off fairly quickly once you hit third position.
The winner will walk away with 500 000 Euros for 3 weeks in the saddle and would have covered in excess of 3480 Kilometers. The winner of the yellow jersey hands over the prize money to his team and doesn't get to keep it. This is the tradition and prestige that goes along with winning this jersey. This is a team sport and without your team you are nobody. A yellow jersey holder will have all the fame and glory, but it is down to what the team sacrificed along the way to make it happen. This is why Lance Armstrong had such a loyal team under him as they knew the chance of a decent payday was more likely than other teams. The bonuses and spin offs for winning the yellow jersey far outweigh the prize money.
The other classifications also carry financial rewards, but not quite the same. They each have prestige and meaning to whoever wins each jersey.The green jersey winner or the leader in the sprint category will win 25 000 Euros ,the same amount for the king of the mountains jersey. The top young rider under 23 years of age will win 20 000 Euros. The top team will win 50 000 euros. The margins between winning the yellow jersey and overall race win are huge compared to what is on offer.
Each stage winner will receive 11 000 euros and this is thrown into the teams pot to be shared out at the end. There is 28 650 Euros up for grabs each day in financial rewards excluding the sprint sections where bonuses are handed out. Competing this race is an accomplishment in itself and there are really only a handful of riders capable of winning this race.
The race is steeped in tradition and there are unwritten rules that all the riders know. Some have tried to shun these in the past only to find the entire peleton shun them for their actions. There have been occasions when the holder of the yellow jersey has gone down in a crash and the entire race was paused and only one rider tried to take advantage and was pulled back by his team mates and other riders. You win the right to wear the jersey being fair and square. Sounds crazy when someone like Armstrong wasn't exactly fair in his scientific approach to cycling, but there are rules or a code they all abide by. I think this is one of the parts of the Tour that make it so unique and interesting.
Fascinating - I wonder what the pay's like for a domestique in one of the back end teams.
It wouldn't surprise me if they had to work a regular day job at those rates.
Even the top teams must rely on sponsorship when you figure out the costs of supporting a race like this.
Also how do the lower teams even afford a team coach? Must be financially on a knife edge.
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The "helpers" in the teams are paid quite well these days. Not like pro football players. But they earn a decent living. The prize money of the Tour must more be seen as a bonus for the team, it is split with every one in the team, including the bike repair guy, the bus driver, etc...
Because of the global scale of this event, sponsors pay huge amounts of money to riders, for just being in the break away. The visibility of the sponsor is immense at such times, so believe me they get their fair share!
I do believe that the money earned is split in 9 part. 8 for the riders and 1 share for the team.
The winner of the Tour de France in general doesn't take a part of the prize pool. He will be rewarded with sponsorship deal and a big fat pay check from the team!
This way it is very easy to motivate the helpers!
I thought it might be all about the sponsors!
Cheers!
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I don't trust this competition since the Lance Armstrong case. It was an ugly one and I don't think it was the only one. How can you trust them after a doping scandal like that?
Did they really earn it the hard way though? I mean isn't it common knowledge that most of them take PED's, it is just whether or not they get caught. In terms of effort put in, it probably doesn't match up to some of the other sports though. Take golf for example :)
the prizes are really low if compared to the effort that cyclists support throughout the Tour de France. that is why I continue. claim that you have to love this. if you decide to ride at these levels for money ... change sports!
Great contribution, but the money for the riders is in the sponsor contracts. The visibility, especially in Le Tour de France is incredible. So, for instance, Wanty - Gobert team, one of the smallest teams (financially) in this tour, is a Belgian team. And they have riders that try to get in the break away every day. Their sponsor pays them very well, for every minute of TV exposure they are getting that way. Winning the stage is nice, but that's actually not the main goal there. Of course they will try to win, but the exposure is the important part for the sponsor.
Also, after the tour, riders are invited to "after Tour criteriums" in Belgium, Holland, UK, Denmark, etc... These races, are just tours around the main square of a city, and are not real sporting events (the race is mostly planned up front).
The riders get decent amounts of money just for showing up there, and the fans, can watch their Tour heros from up close...
For instance, I know that the city of Aalst in Belgium (where the largest criterium is held in Belgium) pays 50k to 100k for the Tourwinner, just to show up. But other riders, smaller hero's get a nice starting bonus too...
It's all business! ;-)
Definitely setting it apart and making it unique one of its kind it will be worth to watch out for :)
wow, its money really!!!