Astana top of the Tour de France's money tree

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Astana claimed more than a third of the prize money available at this year's Tour de France. The Kazakh squad amassed €697,050 [approx US$995,000] after it finished the Tour with three riders in the top ten on general classification.

 Alberto Contador won his second Tour de France while Lance Armstrong and Andreas Klöden claimed third and sixth, respectively. Astana also claimed the team classification by virtue of the high overall positions of its riders.

Andy Schleck's second place at the Tour and stage wins for Fabian Cancellara , Frank Schleck and Nicki Sorenson meant that Team Saxo Bank finished with €362,850, ahead of Liquigas, whose win in the mountains classification through Franco Pellizotti helped to net them €156,360.

Despite Mark Cavendish's six stage wins Columbia-HTC were fifth on the list, bringing in €102,300 over the three week race.

The lowest earners were Lampre-NGC, who claimed €17,040. The sum earned by the Italian squad equates to about €811 for each of the 21 stages of the race. In comparison, Astana's total means that they earned, on average, a little over €33,000 per day.

The list below details the prize money earned by each of the teams that participated in the 2009 Tour de France: