- Professional cyclist Tadej Pogačar has signed a contract extension with his team UAE Team Emirates worth more than €50 million (AU$77 million).
- Pogačar’s contract is the most valuable in the sport’s history, set to continue his role in the team until at least 2030, with a €200 million buy-out clause.
- As the highest-paid rider in the professional peloton, Pogačar’s contract signals the beginning of a new era of record spending in professional cyclists (to match spending on kit).
It’s hard to argue that Tadej Pogačar isn’t the greatest endurance athlete on the planet right now. In 2024, he won 12 Grand Tour stages and a total of 25 races (24 at World Tour level), and became just the third man to complete the “Triple Crown” by winning the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and World Championships.
There couldn’t have been a better year for Pog to renew his contract, and that’s exactly what he did. UAE Team Emirates — the team Pogačar has called home since 2019 — announced he would remain with them until at least 2030.
While the contract ensures the 26-year-old Slovenian will stay with UAE Team Emirates until he is at least 32, it’s the figures behind the contract that have caught the attention of so many. According to reports by La Gazzetta dello Sport, the contract is valued at around €50 million (AU$77 million), seeing Pogačar take home around €8 million per season (up from his current €6 million annual salary). Not bad for the 58 days of racing he did in 2024.
Perhaps the most eye-watering detail of the contract reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport is his buy-out clause, should he want to move to another team. That figure is understood to be at least €200 million.
Pogačar’s €8 million a season new contract is just shy of the €10 million contract Belgian superstar Remco Evenepoel is understood to have turned down to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, instead electing to remain with Soudal Quick-Step on €5 million a year. Such numbers indicate the beginning of a new era of spending on talent in the world of professional cycling.
In an interview with MARCA, Pogačar’s agent Alex Carera explained, “If you are the best cyclist in the world, you have to have the best contract in the world.” Carera wouldn’t confirm the specifics of the contract, but believes Pogačar is the start of a new wave of higher salaries in the peloton.
“The data is confidential,” Carera said. “I don’t confirm anything, but in any case, I have no doubt that there will be racers who receive a similar amount in the coming seasons.”
For context, in 2010 it’s understood that Alberto Contador earned around €4.5 million per year as a part of a two-year €9 million contract for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. He had won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2010, before receiving a two-year ban in 2011 for a positive test for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France.
Not only are cycling contracts worth more today, but they’re significantly longer than those signed in the past, where two or three-year deals were the norm. This trend follows more mainstream sports such as football and baseball, where contract lengths for superstar athletes are now approaching the decade mark.
More generally, cycling has gone upmarket in recent years. A decade ago, it was only the likes of Tour de France stage win record holder Mark Cavendish who wore a six-figure Richard Mille watch while racing.
In 2024, Richard Mille is a sponsor of UAE Team Emirates and the watches were worn by Tadej Pogačar, Mark Cavendish, and Julian Alaphilippe. Watchmaker Tudor has also gone all in to sponsor the Tudor Pro Cycling team, with BOSS as another supporter of the team.
Breitling has also gotten involved in the sport, as a lead sponsor for the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, and luxury sponsors even extend into the world of four wheels, with former World Champion Mathieu Van der Poel enjoying a personal sponsorship deal with Lamborghini.
Increasingly, cycling has become an alternative to golf as the sport for business people to network in a less formal setting than a boardroom. The bikes ridden by these enterprising amateurs can cost tens of thousands of dollars, while the cycling apparel they wear is another way to communicate their income, with brands such as Rapha, MAAP, and Pas Normale all selling outfits that will set you back the best part of $1,000.
An influx of luxury brands, improving audience numbers, negative associations of doping disappear into the history books, and a boom in bike sales during the pandemic, and it’s safe to say things are looking very positive in the world of professional cycling right now, with athletes like Tadej Pogačar capitalising on this new era of big spending and bigger attention.
