FEATURE: SORRY SALARIES
A survey at the end of last season revealed that almost half of the women’s pro peloton is paid just 5,000 to no salary at all, per year. Procycling speaks to those inside the sport and those trying to bring about change
The reality of life in the women’s pro peloton, where low or non-existent wages prevail
When Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin joined a professional cycling team in 2014, she moved to Europe from her home in Canada to race, but wasn’t paid a salary. Despite signing a professional contract, the then 21-yearold, like many other women riders getting into the sport, received no money to race. Her accommodation and food costs were covered while with the team, and because the rest of the time she was able to live at home with her parents, her outgoing costs were low elsewhere. But still, cycling was in all essences her ‘job’, and what she spent most of her time doing, but it didn’t earn her a penny.
Yet Pilote-Fortin’s story is still all too familiar, even four years on. At the end of 2017, the newly formed Cyclists’ Alliance, an organisation set up to support and represent the interests of women riders, sent a survey to 450 riders – of which around half responded. Among the startling results was the statistic that 50 per cent of riders surveyed earned
10,000 or less per year, while a further 17 per cent earned no salary at all. Half said they had to take on a secondary job to financially support
themselves, while more than half also had to reimburse the team for things such as travel expenses and their equipment. Just eight per cent of the riders earned 40,000 or more.
“My first year of racing in a European team, I had no salary,” Pilote-Fortin, who joined WNT-Rotor this spring, tells Procycling. “I know a lot of 30-year-olds who still live with their parents and get support from their parents because they have to…I think it happens more with the younger riders, sometimes they don’t feel comfortable negotiating with salaries and contracts, they will just surrender for something that is a lot less than they are actually worth.
“It kind of works fine for the team, because they think that because they live with their parents and they don’t really have expenses they feel [for example] 400 euros is enough for them to live off.”
There’s a feeling that progress has been made in the women's peloton in recent years. Television viewing figures are high for races that are broadcast, prize money is being matched at some races, but the slow progress of wages to catch up shows how big a chasm remains.
Bob Varney, co-owner of the Trek Drops team, believes many teams give the image of being entirely professional but that much of the sport is all smoke and mirrors. When Varney launched the British outfit in 2016, then Drops Cycling, they called the squad the “best amateur team in the world”, rather than a professional outfit, as they couldn’t afford to pay all their riders.
“In 2016, our first year, we’d done a bit of research and realised that an awful lot of people weren’t being paid. There was a large degree of bullsh*t, I’m trying to think of a more eloquent word. It’s almost a façade,” Varney says of the state of the women’s sport.
In their second season, Varney says every one of their 17 riders was paid, even if it was what they perceived to still be a “very small” amount. “Then when the Cyclists’ Alliance survey came out, all of our girls were in the best paid [49 per cent - Ed] in the peloton,” he continues. “Everyone is over 5,000. We were able to pay our leaders a good salary. All the younger British girls got paid for 12 months, not nine months.” Former rider Iris Slappendel, who co-founded the Cyclists’ Alliance and sits on the UCI’s Athletes Commission, agrees the reality at some teams does not match the image they present. “To the outside world they show they have a great team, they have a budget and they are all very professional but inside you know the salaries are not getting paid, they keep your prize money or you have to fix your own bike because there is no mechanic” she says. “There are even teams that have a big van, they spend money on a van, but not on a salary, not on a programme.”
“I know a lot of 30- year- olds who still live with their parents because they have to…" GABRIELLE PILOTE FORTIN
Brand can only laugh when she makes the compar ison between her salary now being not far off the men’s minimum
Slappendel explains that equally as pressing as low or no pay, many riders have no workplace benefits, such as money to pay into a pension or health insurance, that normally comes with professional employment. Ninety one per cent of respondents to their survey said they signed a team contract without a lawyer reading it first.
As with many professions, those who are likely to be lowest paid are those who are young and have less experience. Many riders just starting out in the sport may see the fact they are getting an opportunity to race as significant enough payment. Arguably, they may get a chance to race and show what they can do, which could lead on to bigger things. But does that justify the lack of salary?
“I was talking to a couple of girls in the Tour of California riding for the smaller American teams and they’re just thrilled to bits [to be there],” says Varney. “Is it exploitation of the riders? Or is it then giving those riders the opportunity to go to another team in a year? If one of those girls gets in the break, gets a great result she transfers to another big team… I don’t have the answer to that one.”
Team Sunweb’s Lucinda Brand is now in her 10th year as a professional cyclist. Like Pilote-Fortin, she was only paid for expenses when she first turned professional, but says as she was living with her parents and still at school the lack of money was not initially too noticeable or troubling. “It straight away gave me a longer view [of the sport],” the now 29-year-old tells Procycling. “You can grow into it, so you get some more expenses and then you can get a small salary. It was actually quite good, it’s good that you don’t start on a high level.”
Brand – like many others – was able to afford to live as an athlete full-time and compete in those early years primarily as she received financial support from her national federation. Yet that funding didn’t come without its own pressures: the money was hinged on Brand performing. Get good results, and the money remained.
“When I started to think about living on my own, I needed to know I had a good salary or at least that I could live from it. I knew having the help of the federation that it was possible, and that’s a good thing, but it should not have to be needed. It shouldn’t be needed. Because then, with the federation, I need those results [otherwise] I will lose it,” she says.
While the men’s sport has minimum salaries enforced by the UCI – 38,115 for WorldTour riders and 30,839 for ProContinental riders - there is no such rule on the women’s side. Arguably, enforcing a minimum salary could force some teams to go bust, as they simply don’t have the budget to cover it. But earlier this summer, UCI President David Lappartient confirmed the governing body plans to introduce a minimum salary for women’s teams in 2020.
Even now, after 10 years racing and a palmarés that includes wins in the Giro Rosa, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Dutch National Championships, Brand can only wryly laugh when she makes the comparison between her salary now being not far off the men’s minimum. “That’s a bit weird,” she says. Yet without a minimum salary, there is no pay structure at all. Teams can freely choose to pay riders however they like. Slappendel explains: “It really depends on the team, there are some that I know of that say we pay no riders a crazy amount but we want to pay all of our riders. There are also teams that are paying a rider 100,000 a year and other riders get only a bike and a jersey.”
The 2019 season will see the new Trek-Segafredo women’s team join the
“We believe that introducing a tiered system in women’s cycling is the irst step in boosting the economics of the sport” GRACIE ELVIN
pro peloton. While their budget is lower than their men’s WorldTour squad, having the backing of Trek has given them an advantage many other squads can simply not afford. They have entered the sport at the highest level, and been able to sign riders of the calibre of Lizzie Deignan and Ellen van Dijk. The team confirmed all riders on its roster would be paid a salary.
“We want to set up a good team because we want to give the riders the possibility to completely live doing their job, because we consider this their job,” manager Luca Guercilena says. “As very often happens, they need to have a couple of jobs, or private sponsors, or something like to just keep going in that direction. I believe that this is the main part of this project - essentially it allows the riders themselves to live like pros. That is the most important thing to do.”
A sponsor the size of Trek investing in the sport can only be seen as a good thing for the continued growth of women’s cycling. But against the backdrop of the current market, it only highlights the inequalities. Both Varney and the Cyclists’ Alliance comment that they want to see the UCI points system revised to create a more stable market. “The whole system makes it attractive for teams to buy one rider with a lot of UCI points so they become a top-15 team, so they can race all the big races, but then they have no money left to pay any other riders,” Slappendel says, before pointing to the fact that a support rider at Trek could next year be paid more than a leader at another team.
Instead, the Alliance argues for teams to be tiered. “The top level of around 15 teams would do all the top races such as the World Tour, and these would be the first teams where a minimum salary would be introduced for a couple of years. The second tier of teams would have the opportunity to race some of the top races but focus again on the smaller races before they become stable enough to warrant entry to the top tier and provide their riders a minimum salary,” Mitchelton-Scott’s Gracie Elvin, who also works for the Cyclists’ Alliance, explains.
But until then, the reality of life as a professional rider in the women’s sport for most, comes with a high cost. “We don’t do that sport for the money, it is kind of your job as you can’t do anything else, but you don’t do it because of the cash,” concludes Pilote-Fortin, on the passion that fuels riders. “You can’t see yourself doing something different and that makes it really easy for them to take advantage of.”