There’s more than the yellow jersey up for grabs in the Tour de France

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Published: Friday, 21 June 2024 at 14:00 PM

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While the Tour de France yellow jersey is one of sport’s most fabled prizes, there is more than just prestige up for grabs at the 111th edition of the race in 2024.

Alongside the yellow, green, polka dot and white jerseys, the Tour de France had a €2,295,200 prize pot to give out in 2023.

This included a €500,000 overall prize for champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a bike). In total, the Dane received €535,220 through the course of the race, including prizes for stage wins, placings on stages and climbs.

Riders can earn money from all the main categories, as well as on categorised climbs, intermediate sprints and for finishing within the first 160 classified riders in the race.

All Tour de France teams have different formulas for sharing the prize money, but usually it’s put into a pot and divided between every rider (and often staff) on the team at the end of the race. Cycling is a team sport with individual winners, after all.

Here’s how the 2023 Tour de France prize money was broken down.

Tour de France stage winner prize money

The winner of each stage earned €11,000 in 2023, as well as a place on the podium at the end of the day.

Second place was worth €5,500, while the rider in third raked in €2,800.

In fact, every rider down to 20th place (€300) earned a share of the €28,650 on offer each day.

Here’s the full breakdown for each individual stage.

1. €11,000
2. €5,500
3. €2,800
4. €1,500
5. €830
6. €780
7. €730
8. €670
9. €650
10. €600
11. €540
12. €470
13. €440
14. €340
15. €300

Tour de France yellow jersey prize money

If winning the stage also put a rider into the yellow jersey, there was an extra €500 up for grabs, with the same prize on offer for each day a rider wore the maillot jaune.

That, however, is small fry compared to the main prize pot for the general classification.

The rider in the yellow jersey on the final podium in Paris in 2023 won €500,000, with Vingegaard taking the spoils. The prize increased back in 2016 and has remained the same since.

Second place went to Tadej Pogačar, earning him €200,000, with Adam Yates taking home €100,000 in third.

Each rider from fourth to 19th on the general classification steadily receives less money, and everyone from 20th place to 160th is awarded €1,000 for completing the roughly 3,500km course.

Here’s a full breakdown of the prize money awarded to the 10 overall fastest riders in 2023.

1. €500,000 (Jonas Vingegaard)
2. €200,000 (Tadej Pogačar)
3. €100,000 (Adam Yates)
4. €70,000 (Simon Yates)
5. €50,000 (Carlos Rodriguez)
6. €23,000 (Pello Bilbao Lopez)
7. €11,500 (Jai Hindley)
8. €7,600 (Felix Gall)
9. €4,500 (David Gaudu)
10. €3,800 (Guillaume Martin)

Tour de France King of the Mountains prize money

A day in the King of the Mountains jersey was worth €300 in 2023, while the top eight in the final mountains classification were rewarded at the end of the race.

The overall winner in 2023, Giulio Ciccone, received €25,000, while second place got €15,000.

Here’s a full breakdown of the prize money awarded to the top eight finishers in the mountains classification in 2023.

1. €25,000 (Giulio Ciccone)
2. €15,000 (Felix Gall)
3. €10,000 (Jonas Vingegaard)
4. €4,000 (Neilson Powless)
5. €3,500 (Tadej Pogačar)
6. €3,000 (Simon Yates)
7. €2,500 (Tobias Johannessen)
8. €2,000 (Jai Hindley)

Tour de France climbs prize money

It’s not all about the general classification and the polka dot jersey – each climb at the Tour de France has a prize on offer at the top.

For hors catégorie and first-category climbs, the first three over the summit earn prize money; on second-category ascents, it’s the top two, and on third and fourth-cat climbs it’s just the first rider over.

The 2023 Tour de France contained 30 climbs categorised as second category or above – with six HC ascents and summit finishes.

The HC climbs and summit finishes were worth €800 to the first across, €450 to the second and €300 to the third. The 10 category-one mountains offered €650, €400 and €150 respectively.

For second-category mountains or hills, the first rider across received €500 and the second €250, while it was €300 to cross a third-category climb first and €200 to be the first over a fourth-category ascent.

Riders can also boost their pay packets further by being the first across the highest point of the race. In 2023, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, as the prize is known, was awarded to the first rider to crest the 2,304m Col de la Loze. That added €5,000 to the kitty of Felix Gall (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) last year.

The Souvenir Jacques Goddet (€5,000) is given to the first rider to reach the top of the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. The prize went to Pierre Latour in 2021 (the Pyrenean peak didn’t feature in the 2023 Tour de France).

Tour de France points classification prize money

As with the polka dot jersey, a day in the green jersey in 2023 was worth €300 – so that’s a lot of prize money that has headed Peter Sagan’s way in his Tour de France career.

Even more so when you consider the €25,000 top prize for winning the points classification overall, which Sagan managed in seven of the eight years from 2012 to 2019.

However, Irish sprinter Sam Bennett ended Sagan’s run in the green jersey in 2020. Mark Cavendish made a triumphant return to green in 2021.

Wout van Aert topped the classification in 2022 and Jasper Philipsen won the green jersey last year.

The top eight in the final points classification all win prizes. The 2023 ranking looked as follows:

1. €25,000 (Jasper Philipsen)
2. €15,000 (Mads Pedersen)
3. €10,000 (Bryan Coquard)
4. €4,000 (Tadej Pogačar)
5. €3,500 (Jonas Vingegaard)
6. €3,000 (Kasper Asgreen)
7. €2,500 (Jordie Meuss)
8. €2,000 (Matej Mohorič)

That’s exactly in line with the mountains classification.

Each intermediate sprint – one on each of the 19 road stages – was worth €1,500, €1,000 and €500 for the first three riders through.

These prizes are often swallowed up by the breakaway, with the sprinters keeping their powder dry for the stage finishes – the prize money for the top 20 on each stage is detailed at the top of this article.

Tour de France young rider classification prize money

A €300 prize is also up for grabs for each day in the white jersey of best young rider (in other words, for the 2024 race, those riders born on or after 1 January 1999).

In addition, the highest-placed young rider on each stage can claim a €500 daily prize.

The top four riders in the final young-rider classification also win prizes. In 2022, €20,000 was up for grabs for the winner, with the prize money decreasing by €5,000 for each position in the top four.

In 2020, at 21 years old, Pogačar became the youngest Tour de France winner since 1904, as well as securing the white and polka-dot jerseys. He won the same three jerseys in 2021, but was only the best young rider in 2022 and 2023.

1. €20,000 (Tadej Pogačar)
2. €15,000 (Carlos Rodriguez)
3. €10,000 (Felix Gall)
4. €5,000 (Thomas Pidcock)

Tour de France team classification prize money

The top-placed team on each stage – calculated by the cumulative time of each team’s three fastest finishers – claims a further €2,800 in prize money.

Those daily times are all added up to form the overall team classification, and the top five teams at the end of the race also win cash prizes.

Here’s a full breakdown of the prize money awarded to the five highest-ranking teams at the end of the Tour de France in 2023.

1. €50,000 (Visma–Lease a bike)
2. €30,000 (UAE Team Emirates)
3. €20,000 (Ineos Grenadiers)
4. €12,000 (Bahrain Victorious)
5. €8,000 (Groupama–FDJ)

Most aggressive rider classification (combativity prize)

There is one final prize at the Tour de France, with race judges picking their most aggressive rider in each of the first 18 road stages (so every stage except the two time trials and the final stage) to win the combativity prize.

The previous day’s winner can be spotted by their red race number on the following stage. They will also be €2,000 richer.

At the end of the race, a Super Combatif award is handed out – worth €20,000.

Wout van Aert added the most aggressive rider award to his green jersey in 2022 and Victor Campanaerts won the 2023 combativity prize.

How does Tour de France prize money compare to other sports events?

While €500,000 (approximately £432,500) for winning the yellow jersey is nothing to be sniffed at, the amount on offer for winning cycling’s greatest race is low compared to other sports.

Wyndham Clark earned $3.6 million for winning golf’s 2023 US Open.

In horse racing, the Saudi Cup winner is awarded $10 million. Most of that goes to the horse’s owner, but the winning jockey can expect a 10 per cent share.

The men’s and women’s singles tennis champions at Wimbledon received £2 million each in 2022.

At sea angling’s 2022 White Marlin Open, Jeremy Duffie netted a world-record-setting $4,536,000 for landing a 77.5lb white marlin.

Still, the most fabled prize in cycling is not something to turn your nose up at – prize money or not.

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