What is the pay range for a pro cyclist?

LS17

I know Lance Armstrong makes about 13 million a year. How about some lesser known "pros" ? Can they make a good living off cycling?

gitaarfreak

You can make a good living of being a pro cyclist. You don't even need to be in the pro tour. The fact is, even continental cyclingteams need domestiques, and if they aren't payed enough, nobody wants to do it. Cycling is really a tough job you know.

Virenque

All ProT and Pro Continental riders can live good with money they make. The problem is that they probably race till about 35 years and that most of them doesn`t make enough for after career life.

Lance was exceptional. I`m not sure but I think that Petacchi got 4 millions euros per year for him and few of his lead-out men in Fassa. He got 3 millions and 1 million went to them. It was something like that but I really don`t know how many of them got that 1 million and if it was exactly 4 millions.
I heard that one rookie rider from Liquigas gets about 50k euros per year. I guess that sounds very little for US standards so you`ll have to convert it a bit.

PartisanRanger

How about domestic pros? I know a few guys who are domestiques on US pro teams and I've always wondered what they got for it (asking would be rude :P).

capwater

I've known some damn good D3 pros who were lucky to make 20k/year. Most of these guys have side jobs or daddy's trust fund.

Virenque

In our continental teams (not pro continental!) average pay is about $10k/year. Some of them make more, probably up to 30k, while some don`t make anything.

PartisanRanger

That really sucks, given the time and energy required to stay at the top of your game as a pro cyclist.

Virenque

It definitely sucks. It sucks because they don`t have time to work anywhere else. These who make nothing are most likely students. But you have to consider that a lot of continental teams are actually amateur teams. Riders want to come to pros in a few years after they come from juniors.

ed073

Some, yes.


Majority, no.


Remember Lance Armstrong is a business. His earnings can't be compared to the rest of the peloton.

palewin

The ProTour minimum salary is $36,000/yr. I suspect that is pretty much what most of the riders earn, since the "millionaires" are the Boonens, Bettinis and other Classics or Stage Race winners, while the bulk of the team riders are domestiques. It seems logical that DII teams pay less, and DIII teams even less. Since all but one of the U.S. domestic teams are DIII (Navigators is the only DII team, and I think Discovery is the only U.S. ProTour team), most U.S. riders don't make a "living wage."

Sam83

To quote the movie "The Hard Road", "The avg first year pro salary is a whopping $10k/y." Thats domestic usa. Welp, if I had what it would take to be a pro now, in my early 20's, I'd take that, just for the ride. Think recreation.

Mark Willis

yes but they are enjoying their life... if I could get paid 5k a year with expenses paid to ride and race my bike i would do it in a heartbeat. Lowend pros get no sympathy from me. Ah if only... ok back to my nerdy boring existence with a good salary.

bbattle

One motivator for the domestiques is the GC guy usually splits his prize money amongst the rest of the team. Traditionally, the winner of the TdF doesn't take home the money, his team does. That's no big deal since the endorsement money will more than make up for that.

Virenque

Half to the winner, half to the rest of the team. That`s very usual.