Pro Team Structure – What Does It All Mean?

February 5, 2009

Have you ever wondered how the whole pro and amateur team structure worked within professional cycling? ProTour, Pro Continental, Continental…what does it all really mean? I looked into it and here’s the scoop…

The UCI puts road teams into three categories: ProTour, Pro Continental and Continental. ProTour and Continental teams are managed by the UCI and the Continental teams are governed by national federations (i.e. Cycling Australia, Canadian Cycling Association, USCF, etc). If you want to race professionally you must ride for a UCI team. Here are the differences between how much the professional cyclists get paid, the registration fees, the roster size, etc. All figures in USD .

ProTour

(Formerly Division I trade team)

Roster Size: 25 rider minimum, 30 rider maximum

Minimum Salary: $47,000 ($38,000 for neo-pros). That’s not a lot of money for a pro athlete!

Bank Guarantee: Minimum $900,000, or 25% of the team’s payroll for staff.

UCI Registration Fee: $68,000, plus $34,000 license fee (to UCI ProTour reserve fund)

Contribution to Biological Passport Program: $163,000

Example: Quickstep, Astana, Columbia-High Road. There are 18 registered ProTour teams in 2009

Pro Continental

(Formerly Division II trade team)

Roster Size: 16 rider minimum, 25 rider maximum

Minimum Salary: $39,000 ($33,750,000 for neo-pros).

Bank Guarantee: Minimum $290,000, or 25% of the team’s payroll for staff.

UCI Registration Fee: $16,300

Contribution to Biological Passport Program: $81,500 for teams with a wildcard label, $10,000 per rider for teams without wildcard.

Example: Team BMC is only US Pro Conti team in 2009. Barloworld, Agritubel, Cervelo Test Team. There are 21 teams registered in 2009 as Pro Continental.

Continental

(Formerly Division III trade team)

Roster Size: 8 rider minimum, 16 rider maximum. There’s some dodgy exceptions to this that teams blatantly abuse to meet the under 28 age requirements, but that’s another blog post in itself.

Minimum Salary: None. Many are volunteer bike racers hoping to make it big.

Bank Guarantee: Minimum $5,500, or 10% of the team’s rider contracts.

UCI Registration Fee: $9,160

Contribution to Biological Passport Program: None

Example: In US: Rock Racing, OUCH-Maxxis, Colavita-Sutter, etc. In Australia: Drapac, Savings & Loans, Budget Forklifts, Fly V (Virgin Blue), AIS, Praties

You can find all the registered Pro-Continental and Continental registered teams here .

The only reason a team would register to be Pro Continental over Continental is so they can participate in the bigger races like ProTour events and possibly the Grand Tours (if their wildcard is drawn). Since many US team sponsors have no market in Europe it makes no sense for them to spend the money to register as Pro Continental when they have no interest in racing in Europe anyway. Continental status suits them just fine.

As you can see, if you’re gunning to become a professional athlete, you might want to consider baseball or cricket as your sport of choice if you’re in it for the money. I don’t think you can possibly find a more difficult and demanding sport over cycling and still get paid next to nothing.

tags: pro, team

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Kent Anderson

$38k for a neo-pro???!!! That’s ridiculous! There’s very few pro baseball, basketball, football, etc professionals that make less than $500k – and that’s coming directly out of high school. I guess that’s the difference between a sport that can be seen from the stands versus standing on the side of a mountain.

Even with the low salaries that pro cyclists make, it amazes me to see the amount of competition amongst them to make it up the ranks. I don’t think you’ll find many other athletes with as much will power and determination.
Kent Anderson

$38k for a neo-pro???!!! That’s ridiculous! There’s very few pro baseball, basketball, football, etc professionals that make less than $500k – and that’s coming directly out of high school. I guess that’s the difference between a sport that can be seen from the stands versus standing on the side of a mountain.

Even with the low salaries that pro cyclists make, it amazes me to see the amount of competition amongst them to make it up the ranks. I don’t think you’ll find many other athletes with as much will power and determination.
JRT

They should work on their golf swing, pays a lot better. Nuts that they all chase the small amounts of cash
JRT

They should work on their golf swing, pays a lot better. Nuts that they all chase the small amounts of cash
Seb

Wow…Didn’t think that some athletes made less money than canadian football players…
Seb

Wow…Didn’t think that some athletes made less money than canadian football players…
Haywarm

JRT, I think that is the whole point – how could anyone punish themselves the way a pro cyclist must, for money? They do it cause they love it
Haywarm

JRT, I think that is the whole point – how could anyone punish themselves the way a pro cyclist must, for money? They do it cause they love it
Bob Roll

The best of the best riders make decent money, by this i mean the “contenders” as in a Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre. Also expirienced riders that bring important skills to the team such as George Hincape, Julian Dean make decent-not as good as the previous group-but still much much better than 40~ k. So if you are good enough you can make decent money-plus with advertisement deals =more cash.
Bob Roll

The best of the best riders make decent money, by this i mean the “contenders” as in a Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre. Also expirienced riders that bring important skills to the team such as George Hincape, Julian Dean make decent-not as good as the previous group-but still much much better than 40~ k. So if you are good enough you can make decent money-plus with advertisement deals =more cash.
Anonymous

As a Canuck Wade, you’d understand about pro hockey. As of the 07-08 season, the average NHL salary was just over $1.9 million, a record high. The highest team members earn around $5-7 mill, the lowest around $500K. Cyclists do it for peanuts.
Anonymous

As a Canuck Wade, you’d understand about pro hockey. As of the 07-08 season, the average NHL salary was just over $1.9 million, a record high. The highest team members earn around $5-7 mill, the lowest around $500K. Cyclists do it for peanuts.
Anna Kauffmann

If that strikes you as a ‘for love, not money’ profession, think for a moment about the pro women’s ranks. I’ll say no more.
Anna Kauffmann

If that strikes you as a ‘for love, not money’ profession, think for a moment about the pro women’s ranks. I’ll say no more.
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that is the whole point – how could anyone punish themselves the way a pro cyclist must, for money? They do it cause they love it
Gladiatorandrew

its not the money that there chasing mate! theres more to it.
GluteCramp

If you think that’s not a lot of money, try being a professional netballer… Bottom-end salaries in the ANZ Championship are significantly less than in pro cycling (and it’s the best-paid league on the planet), somewhere around the $12,000 mark. National team players are still on less than a first year engineering graduate (for example). All ANZ Championship games are internationally televised, it’s one of the most played sports on earth, they spend 20 hrs a week training plus travel and sponsor commitments, and yet they still need jobs on top of this just to survive.