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The world of cycling sees a wide gulf between how much pro cyclists earn and the many many cyclists scraping by at the bottom of the Continental level. Compared to other sports though – like football – cyclists actually still earn relatively ‘normal’ incomes through their sport.

In this article, I’m going to attempt to show some of the known figures for riders across different levels of men’s cycling and the difference in money between men’s and women’s cycling.

2020 will see some changes in pro cycling. The men’s WorldTour stays the same but the Pro Continental level will be renamed the Pro Series. The women’s WorldTour will mean something slightly different and there will be a women’s Pro Series too. As it’s still 2019, just, I’m going to stick with naming levels as they were in 2019 for ease.

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Which pro cyclists earn the most?

Now, this isn’t a definitive list. Just like in the real world, not everyone likes to tell people what they earn. As such it’s a list of only the numbers I could actually find and even those may require being taken with a pinch of salt. There are some big names missing from this list like Julian Alaphilippe who signed a new contract at Deceuninck-Quickstep in June 2019 after his excellent Tour de France.

Rider Team Year Wage Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe 2018 €6 million Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe 2020 €5 million Chris Froome Team Sky 2018 €5.3 million Chris Froome Team Ineos 2019 €5.2 million Chris Froome Team Ineos 2019 €4.5 million Chris Froome Team Sky 2015 €4.7 million Vincenzo Nibali Bahrain-Merida 2019 €4 million Alberto Contador Tinkoff 2015 €4 million Alejandro Valverde Movistar 2019 €3.5 million Mark Cavendish Etixx-Quickstep 2015 €3.5 million Geraint Thomas Team Ineos 2020 €3.5 million Mark Cavendish Dimension Data 2018 €3.4 million Tom Dumoulin Team Sunweb 2019 €3 million Geraint Thomas Team Ineos 2019 €3 million Marcel Kittel Katusha 2018 €3 million Vincenzo Nibali Bahrain-Merida 2018 €2.9 million Egan Bernal Team Ineos 2019 €2.8 million Egan Bernal Team Ineos 2020 €2.7 million Fernando Gaviria UAE Emirates 2019 €2.7 million Fabio Aru UAE Emirates 2020 €2.6 million Greg Van Avermaet CCC 2019 €2.5 million Nairo Quintana Movistar 2019 €2.5 million Tom Dumoulin Jumbo-Visma 2019 €2.5 million Michal Kwiatkowski Team Ineos 2020 €2.5 million Julian Alaphilippe Quickstep 2020 €2.3 million Alejandro Valverde Movistar 2020 €2.2 million Vincenzo Nibali Trek-Segafredo 2020 €2.1 million Richard Carapaz Team Ineos 2020 €2.1 million Nairo Quintana Movistar 2018 €2 million Philippe Gilbert BMC 2012 €2 million Elia Viviani Cofidis 2020 €2 million Thibaut Pinot FDJ 2020 €2 million Primosz Roglic Jumbo-Visma 2020 €2 million Nairo Quintana Arkea-Samsic 2020 €1.9 million Tom Dumoulin Jumbo-Visma 2020 €1.8 million Fernando Gaviria UAE Emirates 2020 €1.8 million Romain Bardet AG2R 2020 €1.7 million Greg van Avermaet CCC 2020 €1.6 million Miguel Angel Lopez Astana 2020 €1.5 million Simon Yates Mitchelton-Scott 2020 €1.5 million

What this table also doesn’t include is the extra money that pro cyclists earn through prize money. I covered all of the teams and riders prize money from the 2019 Tour de France, which showed just how big the payoffs are for winning. It also showed the little money some riders get to supplement their wages after 3 weeks of hard racing.

The prize money for races varies massively. The total prize pot for the men’s Amstel Gold in 2019 was €40k and just €10k for the women’s race. Some races are bucking this trend and offering equal prize money, such as the Tour de Yorkshire. It’s important to note that all of the salaries listed here do not include prize money winnings or endorsements.

Appearance money is another source of income and is rarely openly discussed. Allegedly, Chris Froome received €2 million just to take part in the 2018 Giro d’Italia for instance.

At the end of 2017, it was reported that half of the women’s peloton was earning under €10,000 a year. 17% were earning nothing at all and a touch over 50% also had second jobs to supplement their racing career. At the same point in time, just 11% of women’s riders were earning more than €34,000. An amount that’s comparable to the minimum wage in men’s cycling.

Peter Sagan

What do regular pro cyclists earn?

So we’ve seen what the star riders earn, what about the rest?

Well, a WorldTour domestique can earn between €100,000 and €400,000. You’re looking at the likes of Tim Declercq and Julian Vermote in this category. The guys who don’t necessarily get the glory themselves yet put in a tonne of work to benefit the team. Georg Preidler was reportedly on €170,000 for FDJ during 2017-2018.

A super-domestique type rider can earn anywhere between the high-end of that range and the bottom of the table above. Geraint Thomas was reported to be earning €1-1.5 million in 2018, then he won the Tour de France and now finds himself earning €3 million.

Julien Vermote

Pro cyclist minimum wages

At certain levels in the sport of cycling a minimum wage structure appears but below that level riders will potentially be on much less money to race. In 2019, the minimum wage for men’s Pro-Continental level cyclists was €30,855. For the WorldTour that number is €40,045.

There’s been some reasonable progression in these minimum wages since 2013. Back then a Pro-Continental cyclist would get at least €30,250 and a WorldTour rider at least €36,000.

For 2018, the current Pro-Continental minimum wage of €30,855 was introduced and WorldTour riders were now able to get at least €38,115.

Neo-pros at both levels get slightly less. these were set at €25,300 for Pro-Continental neo-pros and €29,370 for WorldTour level neo-pros in 2013. These increased in 2018 to €25,806 at Pro-Conti level and €30,893 for WorldTour level riders. The current numbers are €26,322 and €31,609.

There’s no minimum salary for those racing at Continental level, so some will be receiving an income but plenty won’t be. I wouldn’t expect their salaries to be higher than the neo-pro rates except maybe for high profile riders at that level like a Davide Rebellin or Adam Blythe – even then probably not by much. It’s often thought that 2.2/1.2 races aren’t considered as professional races, so you’ll often hear of a rider taking their first pro win at a higher level.

Marianne Vos

For women, the situation is closer to that of the Continental riders than any other level. Up until now, there has been no minimum wage at all for women cyclists. 2020 will be the first season with a minimum wage, but only for women on the 8 WorldTour teams. For 2020, it will start at €15,000, with plans to then increase it gradually over the next three years.

If things go to plan, the minimum wage will rise to €20,000 in 2021, to €27,500 in 2022 and become equal to Pro Continental men’s teams by 2023. The number of women’s WorldTour teams should also have grown by then too. Now that Boels-Dolmans have confirmed sponsorship until 2023, they should be able to jump to WorldTour status from 2021. There is no official neo-pro status for women but this is also aiming to be introduced in 2023. Full details from the UCI here.