"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Bling Bling

I just read a bit in yesterday's USA Today.

Lance split his $465,000 prize money with his team mates and support staff. US Postal will be paying him a 3.25 million dollar bonus for winning his 5th tour.

It's good to be the king. :)

Zack

A class act all the way!

thats nice for lance to do, but its not like he is not well off.

my understanding is he's done that every year. not split it, but given it to them outright--rumor has it he even matched the winnings and split up $800K+ b/w the boys last year.

I read something a little while back stating that typically the winner will give his bonus to his teammates. But yeah...Lance is a class act and really shows his appreciation for the guys who get help get him to the podium. That dude just gives me goose bumps.

It's tradition for the winner to sahre his prize money with his team, afterall it is a team effort that got him to the tour.
But lance has been amoung the most generous of winners, along with Indurain. But I think the added commercialisation of the sport makes that possible.
Lance will receive US$3.25x106 from US Postal and it's rumoured a further US$5x106 from the other sponsors, Trek, Nike etc etc.
It IS very good to be the King!

they mentioned a bunch of times during the races that all the prize money (including intermediate splits and stuff like that) goes into a kitty and gets split up by the team at the end of the race. all the teams do it, even the mechanics and other support people get a cut.