Another rest day on the Tour de France and a time for many to take stock of the race so far and plan for the upcoming stages in the Alps. But it’s also a business day and if you can hear the sound of cash registers ringing and riders are walking round with $ and € signs in the their eyes then it’s because many teams and agents are finalising contracts for 2012 and beyond today.
We should know more on the fate or future of the HTC-Highroad team today, it’ll be one thing to secure the team’s financial future but it will need to retain a core of riders to retain its ProTeam status amongst the top-18 teams.
Talking of money, it won’t be top priority but some teams have racking more prize money in the second week. Thanks to their endless attacking, in particular their keen racing for the intermediate sprint, FDJ – appropriate for the French state lottery – have hit the jackpot. Here’s the full breakdown of prize money.
Liquigas were languishing but Ivan Basso’s high mountain finishes and Daniel Oss’s sprinting has helped them rack up a few more Euros. Katusha might be one of the biggest budget teams in the sport but they’re not going to recoup much spending, whist Radioshack are limping home, the team reduced to five riders. Astana have eight riders but they’re struggling in the absence of their injured leader Alexandr Vinokourov.
The total prize fund is €2,021,200, meaning three quarters of the prize money is up for grabs in the final week, notably the €450,000 prize for the overall winner. Last week’s prize total is here.
how is the money usually distributed within a team? Riders, soigneurs, management etc
I thought prize money was distributed amongst the riders with the prize winner taking the lion’s share but giving a good percentage to his team mates who arguably got him into the position to win.
Yes, there’s a formula. All the money goes in to a pot and then the riders share it with team staff. Normally a rider gets a greater share than a mechanic or soigneur but each team tends to have their way of doing it.
Professional cycling is a team sport and this is reflected in a fair redistribution of the prize money. No one rider can win it on his own – no team, no win! Armstrong had the humility to admit that salient fact.
Got some good info from a ex-DS and ex-racer Bernard vallet who do the commentary here in Quebec. All prize are in put in a pot, from that amount 10% go to the support staff. The 90% is shared amongst rider and normally the leader who have some personnal sponsor deal and better wages give his shares to the support staff so with Saxo-bank and Contador as the main leader, 20% go to the support staff and the 80% is shared amongst the teammates of contador. For team like Leopard-trek or Garmin it might be a little bit more complicated with numerous leader or big star. But thats how it was working when Bernard Vallet was riding on the bike or in the team car.