Racing

Tour de France 2016 prize money in numbers

What's at stake for riders in the Tour de France?

The Tour de France‘s yellow jersey is perhaps one of the most iconic prizes in the sporting world.

But the winner of cycling’s biggest prize doesn’t just bag himself the fabled maillot jaune – the Tour de France is big business and the prize money reflects that.

The yellow jersey is not all that’s up for grabs for the Tour de France winner – and we’re not talking about those fluffy lions either (pic: Sirotti)

There’s financial reward up for grabs for stage winners, classification leaders and, in fact, every rider who finishes the three-week race.

And riders can also bag bonifications on the biggest climbs too – with last year’s race seeing more than €2,000,000 handed out.

This year’s prize pot has increased too, with more on offer than ever before for the GC winner.

So, besides personal glory and a place in sporting legend, what else is up for grabs at the Tour? Here’s the full breakdown of the Tour de France prize money on offer.

2,295,850

The overall prize pot for the 2016 Tour de France has increased to €2,295,850. Each team splits the money it wins – not just between riders, but mechanics, soigneurs and sometimes even the bus driver, although each team will have its own formula.

Team Sky split €556,630 between them at last year’s Tour de France (Pic: Sirotti)

Team Sky took home more than any other team in 2015 as Chris Froome won both the yellow jersey and polka dot King of the Mountains jersey, with the British WorldTour team taking home €556,630 in total.

500,000

Top spot on the podium in Paris is worth €500,000 – a €50,000 increase on 2015. While that’s not an amount to be sniffed at, it is actually comparatively low compared to other sports. Tennis’ Wimbledon Championships, for example, hand out a whopping £1,888,000 to the two (gentleman and ladies) singles winners.

The Tour de France winner bags €450,000 while there’s €200,000 to the runner-up and €100,000 for third place (Pic: Sirotti)

Second place in the Tour is worth €200,000, while third place gets €100,000. Finishing from fourth to 19th pays out between €70,000 and €1,100, while every other finisher nets €1,000 as reward for slogging it out over the entirety of the three-week race.

500

It’s not just the rider who takes home the yellow jersey who finishes quids in either, with €500 the prize for a day in the yellow jersey. Last year it paid out €350, so Chris Froome’s 15 days in yellow therefore added €5,250 to the Team Sky kitty at the 2015 Tour.

Each day spent in the yellow jersey is worth €350 (pic: Sirotti)

The other three jerseys – the white jersey of best young rider, green jersey of points classification leader and polka dot jersey of King of the Mountains – are each worth €300 a day.

11,000

The top 20 riders on each stage win prize money, with €11,000 reserved for the winner each day, €5,500 for second place and €2,800 for third. The rider finishing 20th earns €300. There’s also €500 on offer for the best young rider (under 26) on every stage.

The top 20 riders on each stage earn prize money, with €8,000 going to the winner (pic: Sirotti)

The 2016 edition of the Tour de France features no team time trials, but the prize money for those is slightly different, with the winning team netting €10,000 in 2015. Again, quite generously, prize money is awarded down to 20th place (€200) so the only two teams to miss out last year were Cofidis and a heavily-depleted Orica-GreenEDGE team.

25,000

The final winner of the points and King of the Mountains classifications each collects €25,000, while the best young rider in the final general classification picks up €20,000. Second place for all three is worth €15,000 and third place nets €10,000.

Chris Froome bagged the polka dot jersey of King of the Mountains in 2015, while Peter Sagan claimed his fourth consecutive points classification title. The best young rider, for the second time in three years, was Movistar’s Nairo Quintana.

800

There are prizes atop every climb in the race to the first three riders at the summit. Classified according to their difficulty, seven have been given the toughest HC stamp (hors categorie or beyond category) in 2016 with the first rider to the top of each claiming €800.

The first rider to the top of each climb also nets prize money (pic: Sirotti)

The 2016 Tour de France also features 14 category one climbs (€650 to the first to the top); seven category two climbs (€500); 12 category three climbs (€300) and 18 rated category four (€200). Two of the seven hors categorie climbs also carry further bonifications…

5,000

Three bonus prizes are up for grabs, worth €5,000 each, at the top of specific climbs. At the top of the Col du Tourmalet, the Souvenir Jacques Goddet – awarded in memory of the former Tour director – is given to the first rider to pass his memorial at the top. The Tourmalet is the first climb on stage eight of this year’s race.

Also up for grabs is the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, named in memory of the Tour de France founder, whose memorial stands atop the Col du Galibier. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange is awarded to the first rider to the summit of the highest mountain in each year’s race. The highest point of the 2016 race is at 2,408m on the first climb of stage ten, the Port d’Envalira.

This year there is also the Prix Bernard Hinault on offer, which will be awarded after the stage 18 individual time trial. The fastest rider on the 2.5km Cote de Domancy, the first of two hills on the route, nets €5,000.

1,500

It’s not just the climbs worth money but the intermediate sprints too, with the top three at each sprint not only rewarded with points towards the green jersey classification.

Points towards the green jersey are not all that’s on offer at an intermediate sprint (pic: Sirotti)

The winner at each sprint nets €1,500, second place gets €1,000 and third place bags €500.

2,000

Alongside the jersey wearers, the podium ceremony also features the rider voted most aggressive of the day (excluding the final stage and any time trial stages). Alongside red race numbers for the following day, the combativity prize also carries a €2,000 reward.

At the end of the race, the “Super Combatif” prize is also awarded to the rider deemed most aggressive in the whole race. Romain Bardet was the 2015 winner of the €20,000 prize.

2,800

Calculated by adding the times of a team’s three best riders on each stage, plus their fifth placed rider’s time in any team time trial, the team classification awards €2,800 to each day’s top team.

The top team in the team classification earn €50,000 (pic: Sirotti)

Usually distinguishable by their yellow helmets, the team leading the overall team classification at the end of the race net a further €50,000. The team classification has prize money down to fifth place, with €30,000 for the runners-up and €20,000 for third place. The fourth best team get €12,000 and fifth best claim €8,000. Unsurprisingly, given they boasted both the runner-up and third-placed riders – Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde – Movistar were the 2015 winners.