Pogacar, UAE Team Emirates top Tour de France prize earners

It took three weeks of suffering and a stratospheric final time trial but Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates brought home the overall victory at the Tour de France. How much did they earn in cold cash, in official prize money, for their efforts? A total of €624,230 (US$734,000).

Pogačar claimed the €500,000 for winning the general classification, €20,000 for the young riders' classification and €25,000 for the mountains classification in addition to several other prizes along the way to rake in €602,400.

Compare these figures with other sports that €1.1 billion prize purse for the UEFA Champions League, the $11 million on offer at the Superbowl and $4 million to the winner of the US Open, the prize purse of €2,293,000 seems like a reasonable number, but it's spread across 160 riders who then share with their teammates and even team staff, making it far less lucrative than the majority of professional sports. It would just crack the top 10 in eSports.

How the prizes break down

The money for the top overall finishers take up the majority of the Tour de France pool, with the top 10 in the GC accounting for 42 per cent of the overall prize purse.

That helped UAE Team Emirates top the overall earning list. Jumbo-Visma follow in second with €342,860. The Movistar team can thank Enric Mas and the teams classification for most of their €169,590, the third-ranked team in the prize money haul.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won €25,000 for taking the green jersey and, along with cash for intermediate sprints, top stage finishes and leading the points classification, the Irishman earned €70,870. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), by comparison, brought in €35,290.

The mountains classification is the showiest, with prizes on each climb worth €200 to €850 depending on the category. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) was wise to attack on the Col de la Loze because the Souvenir Henri Desgrange was worth a whopping €5,000 at the top.

The young riders are given extra incentives, with prizes for the top young rider on the stage and the leader of the white jersey classification on each day. That and the super combativity prize worth €20,000 helped Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) take home €58,590.

Finally, the teams classification lead is worth €2800 per day and €50,000 for the best team, so it was worth Movistar's time to keep four riders high up in the overall standings.

*Prize lists are estimates based upon the rule book and published race results.