(Reuters) – Chris Froome picked up 500,000 euros ($582,900) yesterday as his prize for winning the Tour de France — a tidy sum but a relative pittance compared to the huge sums banked by the top names in other sports.
By tradition, the Briton must also shares the spoils of his fourth Tour triumph in five years with his Team Sky colleagues, and not just the riders but the mechanics, the chef, the soigneurs and even the drivers of the team buses.
Last weekend Roger Federer earned 2.2 million pounds ($2.86 million) when he claimed an eighth Wimbledon tennis title — having spent a total of 11 hours and 37 minutes on court. Put another way that is 3,156 pounds per minute.
American Jordan Speith, who won the British Open yesterday, earned $1.84 million for his four rounds of golf at Royal Birkdale.
Soccer salaries in Britain are regularly in excess of 150,000 pounds per week with Manchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba earning a reported 290,000 pounds each week.
Froome is the highest-paid rider in the peleton and extremely well remunerated as Team Sky’s boss on the roads, commanding a millionaire’s salary.
His prize money for a gruelling 21-day slog around France is low by comparison with other sporting winners, though, especially when you consider what he put himself through to win one of the closest Tours for years.
The 32-year-old cycled 3,540 kilometres over 21 days, gasping up cruel climbs, battling wicked crosswinds and searing heat and surviving one big crash. He earned roughly 5,800 euros for each of the 86 hours he spent in the saddle plus an extra 500 euros for each day he wore the yellow jersey.
There are myriad other ways for the riders to earn a few extra euros in the Tour — again all shared with the team.
Points jersey winner Michael Matthews earned 25,000 euros for his Sunweb team who also shared the same sum for Warren Barguil’s polka dot jersey for being king of the mountains.
Stage wins were worth 11,000 euros and the smaller teams, desperate for publicity and extra revenue, sent riders out in daily breakaways aiming to hoover up prize money.
Intermediate sprint wins were worth 1,500 euros while riders first to crest the climbs were also rewarded, although 800 euros for making it first to the top of a monster such as the 2,360-metre Col d’Izoard in the Alps hardly seems particularly generous. ($1 = 0.8578 euros) ($1 = 0.7697 pounds)
