There was a time – not even that long ago – when winning lots and lots of bike races didn’t earn riders riches for life. They still had to work post-career. Look at three-time Tour winner and double world champion Greg LeMond, the signer of cycling’s first million-dollar contract who morphed into a do-it-all entrepreneur (he’s even investing in a carbon fibre business in Grimsby, England – but that’s a story for another day).
Nowadays, it’s a completely different landscape. There are an estimated 80 millionaires in the men’s peloton who, if they manage their piggy banks sensibly, are set for life. The other 420-plus riders in the WorldTour don’t do too badly, either.
Figures from the International Cycling Union (UCI), obtained by Escape Collective, show that the average 2026 wage for riders who are directly employed by their teams (meaning their team pays social security fees and other employment costs, an arrangement that accounts for 57% of the WorldTour) is €384,000, while the median is €216,000. For self-employed riders, who work for their teams as independent contractors and therefore bear those additional costs themselves, the average salary rises to €654,000, and the median sits at €350,000.
But who are the richest 10, the top of the top earners? Which bike riders pocket the most money on an annual basis? That information is a bit tougher to come by.
Escape has spoken with half a dozen of the sport’s biggest agencies and shared information with other insiders in the sport to compile cycling’s 2026 rich list. All figures, which are very well-informed, but still estimates, only refer to a rider’s base salary and do not cover bonuses, additional private sponsorship, or money earned from appearance fees, such as a lucrative criterium contract or appearing on TV as a pundit.
Tadej Pogačar, 27, UAE Team Emirates-XRG: €8.4 million
No surprise here, the four-time Tour de France champion and (probably) greatest bike rider of all time is biggest earner of them all. For now (see honourable mentions, below). And thanks to his dominance, which began when he won his second successive Tour de France in 2021, he has been in the top spot for quite some time.
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