經過21天的艱苦騎行，上周日格蘭特·托馬斯在個人生涯中首度摘得環法自行車賽的桂冠。作為首位獲得該賽事總冠軍的威爾士人，托馬斯不但攻克了艱難的標準爬坡路段和混亂的沖刺，還經歷了警方噴辣椒水驅趕抗議者造成的比賽推遲。

靠著頑強拼搏，托馬斯贏得了50萬歐元、約合58.2萬美元的獎金。這份獎勵并非獨享，還要分給托馬斯天空車隊（Team Sky）里的其他車手和工作人員。此外，車隊里其他車手在某些單獨賽段和總排名上也獲得少量獎金，也都會共享。

英國《每日電訊報》尖銳地指出，環法自行車賽的冠軍獎金相比大多數其他領域重大體育賽事都少得多。今年溫布爾登網球公開賽男單冠軍諾瓦克·德約科維奇獲得225萬英鎊，約合290萬美元。今年6月，2018美國高爾夫公開賽冠軍得主布魯克斯·科普卡獨享216萬美元獎金。

不過，職業自行車手還有一份車隊的薪水。天空電視體育臺Sky Sports數據顯示，和托馬斯同屬天空車隊、環法自行車賽兩屆冠軍得主克里斯·弗魯姆年薪300萬英鎊，約合390萬美元。作為一隊之長，該薪酬水平不算夸張。隊中的陪賽成員，即所謂的勤務大多數年收入則在18萬美元到55萬美元之間。薪水大多來自車隊裝備制造商的贊助。

自行車職業選手的固定收入同樣不及其他體育項目。美國職業橄欖球大聯盟的選手平均年薪210萬美元，僅比歐洲英超聯賽的球員略低，后者的平均年薪為280萬美元。即使收入想達到中位值也要熬很久，職業自行車隊年輕車手剛開始年薪才不到5萬美元。（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

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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.