After seeing the payouts for each team the other day, I was amazed at how little these guys actually make? The amount of suffering that these guys endure and to be paid so little seems ridiculous. It makes me want to go to a baseball game and haze those guys to no end.
Thoughts?
supply
demand
they are able to put on the show with those payouts
so that is all they pay out
this is the only way the world can work
it isn’t fair
but the world can’t be fair
im very sorry
After seeing the payouts for each team the other day, I was amazed at how little these guys actually make? The amount of suffering that these guys endure and to be paid so little seems ridiculous. It makes me want to go to a baseball game and haze those guys to no end.
Thoughts?
do you hvae a linkt o the payouts…im curious to see…
From a cyclingnews article, Astana took 1/3 of the prize money and they took in 995k dollars and they mentioned how that was with 3 guys getting 10 ten places. So it seems like the Tour is giving around $3-5 million? Seems kinda low, but my figures may not include each of the stage prizes; I’m not sure on that.
It might seem low to Americans and to those in more developed economies; however, the $1,000 for an intermediate sprint can be a nice little payout for someone from a struggling or emerging economy. This is likely one of the reasons you see quite a few professional cyclists who come from humble backgrounds. They literally use their talent to put food on the table. Here, $1,000 doesn’t really go very far, so you don’t have a huge demand for these “jobs”.
There was about 3.3 million euros total in prize and participation money…
1,000 bucks seems plenty for me 
I’d take a couple of those!
Keep in mind a Euro is about $2.00 USD, last I checked.
Keep in mind a Euro is about $2.00 USD, last I checked.
Um…
You haven’t checked in awhile…it’s about $1.4 USD.
1,000 bucks seems plenty for me
I’d take a couple of those!
Remember that since cycling is a team sport, the prize money gets split equally amongst the team. In fact, at that level the mechanics and staff get a split also, though it isn’t equal to the riders split.
So, each stage win for Mark Cavendish was with 8,000 Euros split amongst the team and staff. A SWAG would say that each rider would get something like 500-600 Euros per stage win depending on how they split with the staff.
It is also fairly traditional for a Tour de France winner to not take ANY of the prize money based on the fact that he will make huge money in his next contract and endorsements. In fact, I believe that Lance Armstrong also paid a bonus out of his pocket to his team mates when he won the Tour.
Another source of income is the post Tour criteriums. I don’t know the going rate, but Contador could probably make 50k a pop at these criteriums and get a little extra for his one or two favorite domestiques. Unfortunately Lance in in the Bahamas and won’t be able to go with.
Seriously, before the Lemond era many riders made a majority of their money in these post Tour criteriums.
Hm, so it is.
Have a look at what they’re wearing. They’re not plain kits, they have sponsors all over them. Granted, a large portion of the sponsor money goes toward expenses, but the riders also get a salary out of that (I think).
The most expensive Euro vis-a-vis the USD happened in mid-July last year at 1.6038. Right now the Euro is struggling to find support above 1.43.
The most expensive Euro vis-a-vis the USD happened in mid-July last year at 1.6038. Right now the Euro is struggling to find support above 1.43.
Maybe I was thinking of the British Pound, or maybe I just made it up.
Its interesting to look at the sponsors and take a stab at figuring out where similar US companies would be spending sponsorship dollars on US sports. It does not seem to me that European cycling teams are getting top drawer sponsorships. It looks more like what you might see in 3rd or 4th tier motorsports (e.g NASCAR Truck series or IRL) over here or what you’d see on the boards at an NHL hockey rink. Its definitly not the level you’d see advertising at the Superbowl or sponsoring a top NASCAR team. On the other hand, when I catch a European soccer game, I see ads for top tier big companies.
Once you get over the glamor of it being European and the names being strange, its really second or third tier sport that has regional banks, some government tourist offices and a selection of midlevel retailers as sponsors along with a few “vanity” sponsors that must be companies owned by folks who love cycling. It does not surprise me there is not a huge payday for the athletes. But, money is not what makes a sport interesting.
Part of the problem, its free to attend the events. Just stand on a road and cheer your arse off…If they could sell tickets to the events, the teams would earn more money.
After seeing the payouts for each team the other day, I was amazed at how little these guys actually make? The amount of suffering that these guys endure and to be paid so little seems ridiculous. It makes me want to go to a baseball game and haze those guys to no end.
Thoughts?
It is a hell of a lot more than you get for winning the Superbowl. The prize money is just a bonus, all these guys are on salary. It would be like saying pro baseball players don’t make a lot for winning the World Series.
Yeah, British Pound makes a lot more sense…that used to be around 1:2.
The minimum salary for a Pro Tour team is something like Euro 28K/year (about USD 40K) and even lower for neo pros. While this is the minimum negotiated by their professional association, it’s not uncommon for domestiques and riders who don’t win much to make slightly more than the minimum. Key riders make Euro 100-200K and team leaders could go as high as 300K. If someone wins a grand tour this number goes up considerably - i.e Contador, having won all grand tours he has entered in the past year and a half, will ask for something like Euro 1.5 mln from his future team.
Rumor has it that the only other rider who is making around Euro 1 mln. (other than Contador, of course who’s believed to be paid 1 mln. by Astana) is Valverde. I don’t understand why that could be re: this particular dude.
As Jackmott said, it’s not really difficult to attract talent at current compensation levels. Cycling does not sell tickets - a big source of revenues for some other sports. Finally, an estimated Euro 40 to 60 mln. of sponsorship cash has fled the sport in the last three years. Coming the opposite way are only Columbia and Garmin and Astana, the first two, reportedly, with ‘investments’ not on the extreme end in terms of annual team budgets.
And yes, for a successful team at the TdF splitting of the prize money (I don’t believe it’s equally distributed among all riders and other team personnel do get a cut) could constitute a bonus of 100% their normal annual pay for a lot of riders. The Giro’s prize purse is three to four times smaller compared to TdF. For the Vuelta it’s even less. Some spring classics pay only about Euro 10K to the winner. The post Tour Crits offer appearance fees of Euro 50K to 80K to the winner of the TdF. Endorsement/advertisement money, on the other hand, could be in the range of Euro 1 to 3 mln. for the TdF winner. Armstrong was a special case and was making a lot more from endorsements and such. His reported 2005 income was USD 28 mln. (Bicycling magazine)