Tadej Pogacar rode into the Alps on Thursday in yellow, on roughly €12 million a year and about 34 times the pay of a median WorldTour professional. His €8 million base salary from UAE Team Emirates-XRG alone tops the combined salaries of the three riders at the bottom of the top-ten earners list.
The salary league that has emerged for the 2026 season, compiled by Tour magazine and matched almost line for line by Domestique Cycling, reads as a straight top-heavy pyramid:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), €8m base, up to €12m with bonuses
2. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), €6.6m
Read also: Paredes drops Messi retirement bombshell: 'He had made the decision'
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), €5m
4. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), €4m
5. Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), €4m
6. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), €4m
Read also: Alcaraz has earned $3 million more than Sinner since April 14 – but he hasn't played a single match
7. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), €2.7m
8. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), €2.7m
9. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), €2.5m
10. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers), €2.5m
Only two of those ten are riding this Tour with a realistic shot at yellow.
The rest of the peloton is racing for stages, mountain points, or the anonymity of the gruppetto, on very different money.
The bonuses that push Pogacar past €12m
Base salary is only part of Pogacar’s story.
His UAE contract runs through 2030 and carries a €200 million buyout clause. On top of the €8 million base, he collects €1 million for a Tour de France win, €500,000 for the Giro or the Vuelta, and €250,000 for the rainbow jersey.
Read also: Illness hits Pogacar’s Tour powerhouse before Alpe d’Huez showdown
His yellow-jersey and world-title double last year triggered €1.25 million in team bonuses alone.
Add roughly €2 million from nine personal sponsors, including Colnago, DMT, MET, Continental, Enervit, Jana, Plume, the Slovenian Tourism Board and MyWhoosh, plus around €1 million in merchandising, and his 2025 total came in just above €12 million.
His agent Alex Carera has two further sponsor deals worth €1 million each under negotiation for 2026, which would double personal sponsorship revenue to €4 million a year.
The median WorldTour salary is €350,000
The gap the top ten opens up on the rest of the peloton is severe.
Read also: Klopp set for Germany unveiling as DFB prepares major announcement
The median self-employed WorldTour rider in 2026 earns €350,000, the average is €654,000, and permanently employed riders take home a median of €216,000.
Domestiques ride for less than €150,000 a year on average, and the WorldTour minimum sits at €72,404 for self-employed contracts and €44,150 for permanent ones.
Team budgets have grown with the top of the sport. The average men’s WorldTour team budget has risen from €31.1 million to €33.1 million within a single year, with UAE Team Emirates estimated to spend around €30 million on salaries alone.
Evenepoel’s €20 million Red Bull deal
Evenepoel’s move to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe for the 2026 season was confirmed last August, with the Belgian’s new contract reportedly worth over €20 million in total across multiple years, before performance bonuses.
He sits second in this Tour behind Pogacar, and second in the pay league behind him too.
That symmetry is the current shape of men’s cycling: two riders on a tier by themselves, three more on €4 million, and a steep drop to the rest.
The Tour reaches Alpe d’Huez on Friday and Saturday for back-to-back summit finishes before the finale in Paris on Sunday. The yellow jersey adds another €1 million to Pogacar’s tally.
