When looking for perspective in cycling, Tao Geoghegan Hart is often a good voice to turn to. Recently, as he met the media ahead of the 2025 season, the conversation turned to the push for reform in the sport. The Lidl-Trek rider was mostly in favour of evolution but cautioned that the status quo isn’t as bad as some are making out. “I have friends in many different endurance sports, and there’s not 1,000 people making a very good living [from those sports], but in cycling there are. And it’s easy to forget that,” the Londoner said.
Part of the sport’s millionaire club, an ever-growing list of riders whose annual salary is at least one million euros, Geoghegan Hart’s comments reflected the reality on the ground: professional cycling, men and women, has never been richer. Team budgets have risen exponentially – the median among men’s WorldTour teams in 2024 was €25m, up from €18m in 2019 – and the average male rider salary, according to the UCI’s official figures presented at the WorldTour seminar in late November, stands at €501,000. In the women’s peloton, it won’t be long before a rider(s) joins the millionaire club – and some think that watermark has already been breached.
