Tour de France: Pogacar claims €610,770 in total prizes

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) spent two weeks defending his lead in the Tour de France, finishing off the 2021 edition in Paris on Sunday as the rider with the lowest overall time – 83 hours, 56 minutes and 36 seconds (41.165kph average) across the 21 stages and 3,414.4 kilometres to put his name in history as winner of his second Tour. 

His prize is more in prestige than cash, however, as the young Slovene earned a total of just €610,770 during the race, compared with tens of millions in prizes for other sports such as Formula 1 and €700 million for the FIFA World Cup.

Pogačar won three stages, each worth €11,000 which, along with prizes for each day in the yellow jersey, leading the best young riders classification, winning the overall, young rider and mountains classification, bonuses at the top of various climbs and stage placings. His prize for winning the entire race was just €500,000 - a fraction of what other professional sports champions earn.

The haul will be added to the rest of what riders from UAE Team Emirates won from the overall purse of €2,288,450. The team earned a total of €621,580 – including €200 picked up by Mikkel Bjerg for the last classified climb of the race, the category 4 Côte des Grès, taken as the team were celebrating at the front of the peloton in the first kilometres of the final stage.

Jumbo-Visma's Jonas Vingegaard earned €220,000 for his position as runner-up in the final classification, and along with €15,000 for second-best young rider and his stage prizes, he brought in €246,470.

Thanks to Wout van Aert's trio of stage wins and Vingegaard's podium placing, among other results, Jumbo-Visma claimed the second-most of any team, earning €358,270.

Richard Carapaz was the rider with the third-most earnings at €112,800 - €100,000 of that for the final podium.

Bahrain Victorious, with three stage wins, second place in the mountains classification with Wout Poels and the €50,000 bonus for best overall team brought in the third-most of any team at €211,410.

Fourth-placed overall Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) brought in €88,550 for his placing in the final standings and stage win, among other minor prizes.

Points classification winner Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) earned €80,240 thanks to his three stage wins and the near miss on the Champs-Elysées, and the €25,000 for winning the green jersey.

Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) won the €20,000 prize for most aggressive rider in the race.

The ASO can pocket €20,000 of the advertised purse since they award €1,000 to each rider who finished 20th or better up to 160 places, but only 140 riders finished the race. Teams share their prizes between riders and staff.