The Vuelta a España ended Sunday with a final time trial, and thus, all the prize money was handed out as well. Which rider took home the most money? Which team managed to gather the largest amount? It's time to dive into the numbers!
While Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) won the Vuelta by a comfortable margin, the Slovenian rider dominated in the prize money standings: the four-time Vuelta winner took home €203,405! That is more than the number two (Ben O'Connor, €82,700), number three (Wout van Aert, €60,630), and number four (Kaden Groves, €54,080) combined. In spot 41, we see the highest-ranked Dutchman, Steven Kruijswijk (Visma | Lease a Bike), with €4,520.
In cycling, the prize money is commonly divided among the team members, making the classification even more interesting. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe won that one, too, by a wide margin, with a whopping €247,460. UAE Team Emirates finishes second with €140,230, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team is third with €99,020.
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If you add up the prize money from Visma | Lease a Bike (€79,545), Alpecin-Deceuninck (€66,835), Lidl-Trek (€52,495), Soudal-Quick Step (€27,340) and INEOS Grenadiers (€19,700), that's still €1,545 less (!) than what Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe earned in prize money in this Vuelta a España. Talk about dominance...
Another striking statistic then: the more than two tons Roglic earned is just over 82% of his team's total prize money. A few teams are even more of a one-man team: the €82,700 O'Connor earned is over 83% of his team's total, and the €47,930 Enric Mas earned is just under 88% of Movistar's total (€54,525). Still, there is one formation that we can label as the absolute one-man team in this Vuelta: EF Education-EasyPost. Indeed, leader Richard Carapaz brought in €25,755 for that team, while the team collected a total of €26,405; that is 97.5% of the team total! By the way, Harry Sweeny single-handedly provided the remaining €650, a two-man team, in other words....