Half a million for men and 85K for women, filtered the average salaries and budgets of the WorldTour

Cycling becoming an increasingly expensive sport is not surprising to those who regularly follow this sport. Now, after the annual UCI World Tour seminar a few days ago, the Italian newspaper la Gazzetta dello Sport, which had access to the figures, publishes a report with the data on the budgets managed in cycling.

Cycling's cost increase confirmed

Maintaining a cycling team requires more and more money. This is not surprising to anyone. However, now we know this fact with specific figures. The total budgets of all World Tour teams amount to 570 million euros, a figure that has grown by 33% since 2022.

On the other hand, women's teams have a combined budget of 70 million euros, although in their case, the growth since 2022 is much more significant, having doubled in this period of time.

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However, it is noteworthy that while in previous years the growth has been quite linear, for the next year the increase is much more significant, with a sudden 12.5% increase in the case of the Men's World Tour. A similar situation occurs in the Pro Tour, where the presence of teams like Israel Premier Tech has led to an increase that will place the total budgets of the category's teams at 149 million euros.

The budget increases within the World Tour are attributed to the arrival of more powerful sponsors. If a few years ago INEOS was the disruptive note, now it is UAE who brings the power of petrodollars. In recent years, we have seen the arrival of brands like Red Bull and Decathlon. In addition, next year the arrival of the Chinese manufacturer XDS Carbon Tech is expected, also with a strong commitment to raise the level of Astana.

The concern is the inequality that these super sponsors are generating, which also allows for an increase in salary inequality as these teams can attract the best riders by paying them much more than they would earn in other World Tour squads. This can be seen by consulting the list of the highest-paid cyclists in the world. While the top 10 highest-paid cyclists receive between the 2.5 million euros earned by Carlos Rodríguez to the astronomical salary of Tadej Pogacar, which amounts to 8 million per season after his recent renewal, the average cyclist's salary remains at 500,000 euros. In women's cycling, there does not seem to have been an increase in the average salary, with female cyclists receiving an average of 85,000 euros, implying that the budget increase has likely been aimed at consolidating the different team structures.

This continues to lead to calls for some form of salary cap system to ensure equality among teams.