这个冠军太“寒酸”，环法自行车赛头名奖金不到温网五分之一

经过21天的艰苦骑行，上周日格兰特·托马斯在个人生涯中首度摘得环法自行车赛的桂冠。作为首位获得该赛事总冠军的威尔士人，托马斯不但攻克了艰难的标准爬坡路段和混乱的冲刺，还经历了警方喷辣椒水驱赶抗议者造成的比赛推迟。

靠着顽强拼搏，托马斯赢得了50万欧元、约合58.2万美元的奖金。这份奖励并非独享，还要分给托马斯天空车队（Team Sky）里的其他车手和工作人员。此外，车队里其他车手在某些单独赛段和总排名上也获得少量奖金，也都会共享。

英国《每日电讯报》尖锐地指出，环法自行车赛的冠军奖金相比大多数其他领域重大体育赛事都少得多。今年温布尔登网球公开赛男单冠军诺瓦克·德约科维奇获得225万英镑，约合290万美元。今年6月，2018美国高尔夫公开赛冠军得主布鲁克斯·科普卡独享216万美元奖金。

不过，职业自行车手还有一份车队的薪水。天空电视体育台Sky Sports数据显示，和托马斯同属天空车队、环法自行车赛两届冠军得主克里斯·弗鲁姆年薪300万英镑，约合390万美元。作为一队之长，该薪酬水平不算夸张。队中的陪赛成员，即所谓的勤务大多数年收入则在18万美元到55万美元之间。薪水大多来自车队装备制造商的赞助。

自行车职业选手的固定收入同样不及其他体育项目。美国职业橄榄球大联盟的选手平均年薪210万美元，仅比欧洲英超联赛的球员略低，后者的平均年薪为280万美元。即使收入想达到中位值也要熬很久，职业自行车队年轻车手刚开始年薪才不到5万美元。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

After 21 days of brutal cycling, Geraint Thomas took first place in the Tour de France last Sunday. The first Welshman to win the Tour, Thomas overcame not only the race’s standard punishing climbs and chaotic sprints, but a delay thanks to police pepper-spraying protesters.

For that perseverance, Thomas won a purse of 500,000 Euros, or about $582,000. That money, though, is put into a pot to be shared with other riders and crew on Thomas’ Team Sky, along with smaller prizes accumulated by other team members for winning individual stages or placing in the overall race.

As the Telegraph unflinchingly points out, those winnings—however they’re divided up—pale in comparison to the financial rewards of the premier events in most other major sports. Novak Djokovic won 2.25 million pounds, or $2.9 million, for his win at Wimbledon this year. The 2018 U.S. Open awarded $2.16 million to winner Brooks Koepka in June.

Cyclists do, however, also earn a salary from their team. Chris Froome, a two-time Tour winner also on Team Sky, pulls a salary of 3 million pounds—about $3.9 million—per year, according to Sky Sports. That’s not unusual for a team leader, while the rest of the team—so-called domestiques—mostly earn anywhere from around $180,000 to $550,000. Those salaries are largely financed through team sponsorships from equipment manufacturers.

They also, again, pale in comparison to other sports—the average American NFL player makes $2.1 million per year, itself a good bit below the $2.8 million average for soccer players in Europe’s Premier League. And for a cyclist, getting to even the middle of the earnings pack takes persistence—young team cyclists commonly start out making under $50,000 per year.