The post-Tour de France criteriums are in full swing this week, with races taking place throughout Belgium, Holland, Germany and France with riders cashing in on their exploits during the Tour.

But how much are the top riders earning as appearance fees at these exhibition races? Quite a lot it seems. The organiser of the criterium in Antwerp, Roland Descheemaeker, told Het Laatse Nieuws, that Chris Froome and Peter Sagan were out of his price range. “Too expensive,” Descheemaeker told the Belgian newspaper. “Sagan asked for €32,500 entry fee and Froome wanted between €45,000 and €50,000.”

“Well, if you spend a total of €100,000, those two together cost almost €80,000, then you can simply offer the public no more top riders. We therefore chose to go with more than two top riders,” says Descheemaeker who has managed to sign Vincenzo Nibali, Greg Van Avermaet, Serge Pauwels and Zdenek Stybar for his race.

The prohibitive cost of Froome and Sagan hasn’t stopped other organisers signing the duo though. They both appeared at Aalst earlier in the week, which has a budget of about €170,000. Ninove has an even more impressive budget of €300,000. Amongst those down to take part in Ninove this Sunday are Froome, Van Avermaet and Pauwels.