The Tour de France is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, but how does the prize money stack up in comparison to other sports?
Despite its enormous scale and popularity, the Tour is famous for not offering up the same kind of cash earnings as other global sporting events like Wimbledon.
But what was the prize money on offer in the 2021 Tour de France and who won the most?
The total purse for this year’s Tour de France was around €2,288,450 (or around £1.9million).
Of that total prize purse, the winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took home €500,000 (£427,000) for the overall win, which is the same as the 2020 edition he also won. With his three stage wins and days in the yellow jersey (plus his days in the white jersey and polka-dot jersey), Pogačar took home a total of €609,770.
Compare this to the winners of other sporting events like Wimbledon, where the winners of men’s and women’s tournaments take home £1.7million each, while in golf the winner of the prestigious Masters will take home $2,070,000 (£1.49million).
Stage winners in the Tour also take home some earnings, along with the glory of winning a stage of the biggest bike race in the world, as victors take home €11,000 (£9,300) each day.
There are also cash prizes on offer in the minor classifications, as intermediate sprints are worth €1,500 for the first rider across the line, and the winner of the green jersey competition takes home €25,000.
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In the climber’s classification, riders can win anywhere from €200 to €800 for being first over the summit of a categorised climb, and then €25,000 for whoever holds the polka-dot jersey in Paris.
In the other minor classification, the best young rider takes home €20,000 while the winners of the team classification take home €50,000.
As expected, Pogačar is the highest earner in this year's Tour, with runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) the second highest earner (€245,970) and Richard Carapaz in third (€112,800).
Britain's Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), thanks to his four stage wins and topping of the points classification, won €80,240 as the fifth highest earner of the Tour.
In the teams ranking, Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates took home the biggest prize of €620,380. Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma took second thanks to the runner-up position on the overall podium, plus Wout van Aert's three stage victories. The Dutch squad go home with €354,970 in winnings.
Winners of the team classification and three stages Bahrain Victorious are third with a total of €167,410.
Tour de France 2021 prize money per team (in Euros)
1. UAE Team Emirates, €620,380
2. Jumbo-Visma, €354,970
3. Bahrain Victorious, €167,410
4. Deceuninck-Quick-Step, €147,190
5. Ineos Grenadiers, €134,590
6. Ag2r Citroën Team, €120,830
7. Bora-Hansgrohe, €108,070
8. Alpecin-Fenix, €78,180
9. EF Education-Nippo, €65,310
10. Trek-Segafredo, €59,590
11. Movistar Team, €50,140
12. Team BikeExchange, €44,310
13. B&B Hotels p/b KTM, €35,420
14. Groupama-FDJ, €34,000
15. Astana-Premier Tech, €32,830
16. Cofidis, €32,390
17. Arkéa-Samsic, €25,020
18. Israel Start-up Nation, €24,230
19. Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, €23,140
20. Team TotalEnergies, €21,960
21. Lotto-Soudal, €19,190
22. Team DSM, €12,950
23. Qhubeka-NextHash, €11,650
Tour de France prize money: general classification and stage result
| GC winner | Prize money (€) | Stage winners | Prize money (€) |
| 1 | 500,000 | 1 | 11,000 |
| 2 | 200,000 | 2 | 5,500 |
| 3 | 100,000 | 3 | 2,800 |
| 4 | 70,000 | 4 | 1,500 |
| 5 | 50,000 | 5 | 830 |
| 6 | 23,000 | 6 | 780 |
| 7 | 11,500 | 7 | 730 |
| 8 | 7,600 | 8 | 670 |
| 9 | 4,500 | 9 | 650 |
| 10 | 3,800 | 10 | 600 |
| 11 | 3,000 | 11 | 540 |
| 12 | 2,700 | 12 | 470 |
| 13 | 2,500 | 13 | 440 |
| 14 | 2,100 | 14 | 340 |
| 15 | 2,000 | 15 | 300 |
| 16 | 1,500 | 16 | 300 |
| 17 | 1,300 | 17 | 300 |
| 18 | 1,200 | 18 | 300 |
| 19 | 1,100 | 19 | 300 |
| 20-160 | 1,000 | 20 | 300 |
Tour de France prize money: Minor classifications
| Position | Points prize money (€) | Mountains | Young rider | Teams |
| 1 | 25,000 | 25,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 |
| 2 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 30,000 |
| 3 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| 4 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 5,000 | 12,000 |
| 5 | 3,500 | 3,500 | 8,000 | |
| 6 | 3,000 | 3,000 | ||
| 7 | 2,500 | 2,500 | ||
| 8 | 2,000 | 2,000 | ||
| TOTAL | 65,000 | 65,000 | 50,000 | 120,000 |
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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