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Millionaires and minimum wage: Inside the new landscape of WorldTour pro cycling salaries

An illustrated image of Tadej Pogacar and Demi Vollering surrounded by money and a graph.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

When looking for perspective in cycling, Tao Geoghegan Hart is often a good voice to turn to. Recently, as he met the media ahead of the 2025 season, the conversation turned to the push for reform in the sport. The Lidl-Trek rider was mostly in favour of evolution but cautioned that the status quo isn’t as bad as some are making out. “I have friends in many different endurance sports, and there’s not 1,000 people making a very good living [from those sports], but in cycling there are. And it’s easy to forget that,” the Londoner said.

Part of the sport’s millionaire club, an ever-growing list of riders whose annual salary is at least one million euros, Geoghegan Hart’s comments reflected the reality on the ground: professional cycling, men and women, has never been richer. Team budgets have risen exponentially – the median among men’s WorldTour teams in 2024 was €25m, up from €18m in 2019 – and the average male rider salary, according to the UCI’s official figures presented at the WorldTour seminar in late November, stands at €501,000. In the women’s peloton, it won’t be long before a rider(s) joins the millionaire club – and some think that watermark has already been breached.

In an official UCI document seen by Cyclingnews, the 18 men’s WorldTour teams collectively spent €226.5m on rider salaries in 2024, with teams spending on average €12.6m on their maximum quota of 30 riders. One team, thought to be UAE Team Emirates XRG, had an outlay of €27.3m on salaries, and at the bottom end of the scale, assumed to be Intermarché-Wanty, total salaries amounted to €5.2m.

In 2025, that figure has risen further, with several superstars improving their contracts substantially: Cyclingnews has been able to confirm that Tadej Pogačar’s wage has grown from around €6m to north of €8m, while Remco Evenepoel’s previous salary of around €2m (excluding bonuses) has swelled to between €4.5 and €5m. Jonas Vingegaard earns around €5m, Mathieu van der Poel €4m, and both Wout van Aert and Primož Roglič pocket €3.5m from their respective teams annually. They’re at the top end of the earning charts, but each year more riders join the millionaire ranks.

“Every team has, at a minimum, two riders on a million – some even have seven to eight,” agent João Correia, who runs the Corso management company, said. “If you go through each team’s roster and quickly add that up, I imagine there’s 75-100 on at least million euro contracts. There’s definitely 50, at the very least.” Of those surpassing the two million benchmark, Correia speculates there are more than 30.

“Teams are realising that it’s no longer enough to have two or three star riders and then just fill the rest of the team with whoever else – you also need a very good midfield, whether that’s a leadout train for a sprinter or climbers for a GC leader. And that’s working in the favour of those mid-ranking riders because it costs more and more to sign them,” said Dries Smets, a Belgian agent for Wasserman.

The youth revolution, however, has upended the rulebook – even if there are still many on around €80,000 contracts. “In the past, neo-pros signed for the minimum contract, but cycling’s changed. The best neo-pros, the ones who win Tour de l’Avenir or the World Championships, can now earn between €150,000 and €500,000,” Carera said. Cyclingnews is aware of some neo-pros earning significantly more than half-a-million.

When looking at the women’s peloton, the story is somewhat different: minimum wages are far more common. “There aren’t many men on minimum wage, but there are lots of women,” Carera said. Only introduced in 2020 with a minimum salary of €15,000, Women’s WorldTour riders now must earn a minimum of €62,320 if they’re self-employed, and €38,000 if they’re contracted. The amounts for neo-pros drop to €52,000 and €31,768, respectively.

The median team budget of the 15 women’s WorldTour teams is €3.6m, Cyclingnews understands, with teams typically averaging a roster of 17-18 riders. The majority of riders in the women’s field earn between €80,000 to €100,000, with more important domestiques and occasional race winners earning between €150,000 and €250,000. A top-10 rider takes home between €300,000 and €500,000, with the biggest champions nudging towards €850,000.

Among the various agents Cyclingnews spoke to, there was disagreement over the salaries of the current highest female earners. “I think we’re already seeing million euro contracts in the women’s field – I believe that’s been broken,” Correia said. “We don’t represent any of them, but I’m fairly sure two or three of women earn over a million. And if not, they’re pretty damn close to it.” Other agents, however, dismissed Correia’s belief. “I don’t think there’s three that make over €1m,” one said. “I think they’re just below that mark.” Carrera said: “In two or three years, for sure we’ll see women on over one million, but right now they’re not earning that.”

Most riders can expect to receive between a few thousand euros and €15,000 if they win a stage of a WorldTour race, rising to €20,000-€100,000 for a Grand Tour stage, and €50k to €500,000 for winning a Monument, depending on the team and rider’s base salary. French teams pay out a big bonus for the French National Championships. But not everyone can be so lucky. “There are teams who say we don't give bonuses because riders get paid to race and score results,” Smets said. “Big name riders especially are on good salaries and might not get a bonus for a race that they’d be expected to do well in.”

Typically, a team will exclusively own the image rights of a rider, but exceptions can be made for certain riders who seek external sponsorships. “There’s a bigger battle between male riders and their teams over non-team sponsors, but in female cycling, it’s becoming more popular,” Smets said. “There’s less history, and teams are more open to thinking: if it's good for the rider and doesn't hurt the team, why not?”

“It’s very country-specific,” explained Correia. “A Belgian rider has more sponsorship opportunities because they’re cycling mad, even though Belgium’s advertising market isn’t huge, while Pidcock being British has more opportunities than riders from small countries do. Some marquee riders can negotiate terms on image rights with their teams, but usually teams own the image rights and can say yes or no to these endorsements. Usually they’ll say yes if it’s a national company and isn’t a competitor to the team’s own sponsors.” Most riders have personal deals with shoe brands that provide a few free pairs of shoes, but some riders might receive a few thousand euros on top. “The best riders will receive €50,000 or more for a shoe deal,” one agent said.

Where a rider (and their team) can really earn big money is if big races pay for their participation. RCS, the organisers of the Giro d’Italia, has a long history of paying appearance fees, and reportedly handed Bora-hansgrohe a cheque of €1m for Peter Sagan race the 2020 edition of the Corsa Rosa. They also committed to paying Soudal Quick-Step for Remco Evenepoel’s involvement in 2023 but didn’t pay out, according to the team’s boss Patrick Lefevere. “Because Remco did not finish the Giro, they [RCS] did not want to pay the agreed starting fee,” Lefevere said. “Remco’s starting money in the Giro – in practice a sum for a package of RCS races - can ensure that we have a budget for an extra rider.”

French and Belgian teams by law must employ their riders, accounting for around 40% of the men’s peloton. In an employed contract, teams must provide health, life and permanent disability insurance, and a pension that equates to a minimum of 12% of the gross annual salary. Self-employed riders have to cover all of the above themselves. Agents typically take between 5-7.5% in commission of all rider earnings.

Of the various clauses and obligations, if a rider is injured or falls ill through no fault of their own, they are entitled to 100% of their wages for the first three months, reduced to 50% thereafter. “But I’ve never seen that enforced,” Correia stated. “And either way, there are insurance policies athletes can take out that cover them in the event that they get injured and they lose part of their salary.” Riders are also permitted 35 days of annual leave per year, but Correia said that “no one really looks at that, either. It’s in every contract but it’s not monitored. Riders only go on vacation in the off-season.”

As discussions over One Cycling continue apace, and the sport hopes to continue attracting additional investment, that’s all good news for the protagonists and those representing them. “When a team’s budget grows, so too does the rider’s salary,” Smets said. “Of course, the teams have service courses and vehicles, but their real assets are the riders. We’ve seen a big increase in budget since Covid and it looks likely to continue.”