pro cyclist salaries

Interesting article from Le Monde on salaries of pro cyclists, and specifically the disparities between the stars and the others. A few tidbits: Contador makes 2-3 million euros per year between salary and image rights; Chavanel's the highest paid Frenchman at 700,000. Maxime Bouet, on the other hand, makes 1,700 euros net per month, though in 2008 he also made 7,000-10,000 in prize money. Salaries are on the rise - average has gone from 70,000 in 2002 to 136,000 this year. Pro Tour minimum is 2,750 gross per month (2,250 with less than 2 years experience); for continental teams it's 2,292 and 1,916. According to Cedric Vasseur, president of the cyclists' union (btw does anyone know anything about this union? I don't), 30% of pro cyclists make the minimum salary.

over 2 years ago plinytheelder 17 comments 0 recs |

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if you want $$$

cycling is probably not the way to go…compare to other professional sports that is.

by rbjhan on Jul 29, 2009 4:20 AM EDT reply actions

Take out the probably and capitalize the 'not".

Ben Jacques-Maynes probably still lives with his Moms, and we know how good he is.

by sminer on Jul 29, 2009 2:07 PM EDT reply actions

maybe she's a good cook : )

by JFS_PGH on Jul 29, 2009 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Hey, and I'm all for getting back to living like the Waltons.

by sminer on Jul 29, 2009 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I just find it hard to believe that the average salary for a Pro Tour rider is 190,000 a year...

that number was released by the UCI from its auditor and it also says that only 15% of the Pro Tour riders are earning less that 40,000 euro a year. There must a be a lot of huge contracts because if you look at a team like Bweeg!, they probably take up 1/4 of that 15% and the rest don’t make much more…

by Vlaanderen90 on Jul 29, 2009 2:25 PM EDT reply actions

Average is a bad thing to use with salaries

Generally one should always use median with Salaries, at least where there is an order of magnitude between the smallest and the largest. I bet the median pro salary for Pro Tour and Pro Conti is right around 35,000 Euro / year – totally dominated by the Conti teams who will have more on the low end. What I would like to know is who are the riders making 500K Euro a year or more. That would be interesting.

by Markk on Jul 29, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions

We demand mean, median AND mode

thank you very much!

And a distribution. And a scatterplot, color coded by team. And one by nationality.

I have my “demanding” hat on today.

by JFS_PGH on Jul 29, 2009 3:34 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah that would be interesting,

anyone know if there’s anywhere this info can be found?

I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it

by plinytheelder on Jul 29, 2009 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

In the same article they said the median for Pro Conti was 60,000 a year

which seems a little high…Those riders that earn just a bike jersey and maybe a place to stay are probably on the continental teams that roam around Europe looking for a result

by Vlaanderen90 on Jul 29, 2009 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Good lord

I wonder how the 30% of riders earning the minimum salary put food on the table with a 4-5 kcal energy requirement. No wonder they are all so skinny…

by RoadRash911 on Jul 30, 2009 1:07 AM EDT reply actions

I wonder how taxes

work. Say if you ride for a team like Garmin and you live part time in the states and have an apartment in Girona?
Or, you are Tom Boonen, you live in Monaco, but ride for a Belgian team. Boonen said that even though he lived in Monaco he still had to pay Belgian taxes because he was on a Belgian team.

Unlike in the US where a lot of ball players live in Florida for the tax breaks no matter what team they play for.

by cyclingdiva on Jul 30, 2009 9:34 AM EDT reply actions

I'm not an accountant

Since accountancy bored me to death. So take this with a fistful of salt. If you live 183 days or more per year in Monaco, then Monaco is your residency and that’s where you pay your taxes. The problem is of course that pro cyclists travel a lot so it’s possible that Boonen is in Monaco less than 183 days. But one must still have a residency, you can’t avoid taxes by moving around. I would think that the tax authorities decided that Belgium is his residency based on that he has got a house there (right?) that he lives in from time to time and because he ride for a Belgian team

Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja men who know how to twirl.

by TheFigurehead on Jul 30, 2009 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions

It's a lot fiddlier than that and depends a lot on where you're originally from

US riders have to pay taxes wherever they live, but can set foreign taxes against that. In lots of European countries you can avoid paying, but then you are only allowed to visit your home country for so many days per year. Any more than that and you’ll get a bill. Boris Becker claimed that he was living in Monaco for years but spent a lot of time sleeping on his sister’s couch so was clobbered. The Italians likewise investigated Cipo a couple of years back, hence the sudden un-retirement at Cali and the time racing with Rock. I think that they got Valentino Rossi too.

by Monty. on Jul 30, 2009 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions