Well, is it a good choise to make; train up in cycling and hope one day I may become a pro?

How much are the pro and "training for pro status" rider's income?

*Topic: career

Well, you've got to have the genetics for it. If you're winning cat 1 or amateur euro races out in front by yourself or placing in the top 3 all the time, I think you have a good chance to make it to the pro peleton. There are many people that train and train, but their genetic makeup does not offer enough potential. Try it for a few years while you're young, but always have a backup (like a college degree)

Your chances of getting rich as a bike racer are about the same as your chances of getting rich playing football or basketball. Yes, there are hundreds of millioinaire ball players, but there are also millions who tried and failed. Race bikes because you love the sport. If you're good enough to make a living from it, more power to you.

I'd like to try for the same thing for a while, but have a backup plan. I know one guy who was pro for a few years as a domestique and now works lifting heavy crap in a warehouse. I also was at a freeway onramp and a homeless man saw my bike and started talking to me about when he was in the Coors Light Stage race.

Until you hit the elite pros actually on a squad on the pro tour, you make better $$ as a bike messenger riding for a living, longer carreer too. Domestic pro's dont make much coin.

Well, any idea how much thousands the pro's get? domestique and non?

Portland: What does that supposed to mean to me?

My cousin was a CAT1 and he didn't make dick. Just got free bikes and ****. I was talking to him about it a couple weeks ago, and he said that in a lot of cases, it's an attrition game. Lot's of people have the talent, but very few of them have the resources that it takes to allow them to fully dedicate themselves to the sport for the lenght of time it takes to "make it". He and his buddy who was also a pro were talking about how many guys they knew that were finally forced to get full time jobs to support themselves in addition to racing, and whose racing then suffered. I think it's a lot like car racing in that respect...not necessarily the talent, but how well you play the politics game, and how deep your (or if you're incredibly luck, your sponsor's) pockets are. He tried and semi-suceeded for a good number of years before he finally had to throw in the towel on that dream.

depends on WHAT pro level, elite pros as in tour riders(GT's) can expect 125k+ depending on talent, team, and where they are on the roster and what they do, if your extremely gifted AND get sponsors your into the millions, but those are far and few between

domestic pro's, if you knock down 20k after expenses and taxes, your freakin lucky

a good bike messenger in a good market with a few years experience can easily do $1000/week just for comparison, and considering its cars instead of other riders, its safer

Oh yeah, pro cycling is your ticket to fame and fortune. 'Train up' to it.

Start by riding 600 miles weekly. Report back here in two years.

Or you could become a car salesman at a Toyota store and make more money drinking beer and flicking boogers. But you wouldn't be in such good shape.

Unless you ride like Lance or Levi Leipheimer in which case this 'pro cycling' stuff might actually work for you financially. I'll tell you what: if you enter your first USCF Cat 2/3 race on a 30 year old Schwinn Varsity and solo in to victory, you may be on to something. Get back to us when that happens and we'll re-evaluate this on your behalf.

Safer? I ride with cars all the time, but still!

The guys over at the fixed gear/single speed forum will tell you not to try and make a living as a messenger. It is dangerous work and $1000 a week is very generous from what they say. I think a more reasonable estimate is that when things are really good, and you are really really good, $100 a day is reasonable. They say that if you can find better paying work, stay out of messengering.

most dont hang with it long enough or work at long enough to find out what you can make

Most dont start their own business and get a 50% pay raise right off the bat either, ya , working for someone else as a 1099 getting a cut of the work means generally $100/day. One thing about the messenger business is its pure capitalism, it is exactly what you make of it, no BS. You work hard, never let up, and you can be quite comfortable, not willing to make the commitment, and life gets rough very quickly. It can be brutal work at times, most people are clueless as to what "hard" work really is, been there done that. Every time I hear someone mention theyve been working hard I have to laugh at them. Unless youve been digging ditches or throwing hay bales all day it probably doesnt even compare. Ive been doing it for about 5 years, Ive seen more than 200 failures, and about 10 success stories, the success stories are still here, and 7 of them are indie just like me.

as a pro bike racer though expect crashes, expect lots of hospital time, broken bones, road rash, and crappy food, tiny euro motel rooms, and doing what your told when your told

I've heard a lot of the international team(popular) rider domestiques make between $20,000 and $30,000 per year on top of riding and most living(or travelling as they do half the year) expenses. Really you're better off, anywear...

Pick up a copy of the DVD,"The Hard Road"...while not very well done (it was racer Jamie Paolinetti's first film making effort) it will give you a very realistic look at what you may be seeking. You will see the tension between one rider, and his spouse who is supporting him while he races and trains and makes ten grand a year.
Bob Roll went to Europe on his own, lived in a tent in a campground and had to ride to the races, then ride the race, then ride back to his tent.
It's fun if you are 20 and don't care about a decent life yet...it's not good if you are 30 and still trying to get there. Some guys, like Wayne Stetina were smart. Wayne raced in two Olympics in addition to being one of the best national racers for a number of years. He cultivated good relationships and now runs the US Shimano operations. So, he's still in the bike business.
If you get a chance, pick up a copy of "Lance Armstrong's War" and read the chapter on Floyd Landis. It recounts his exploits wasting local stud racers...if you are wasting local racers, then you might move up to domestic national stuff. Then, maybe five or six top national riders might get to try the big time...

Jonas Carney rode in the World Championships in Hamilton. He got there by riding the US qualifying race. I recall his comment when he was really struggling to keep up with guys like Bettini..."I have no business being here." He did not finish, as I recall. He has been one of the top US national racers. National racing is like Division I basketball. Maybe 15 or so of those guys in the 250 or so Div I schools get to the NBA.

If you are good enough, you will show it right out of the box. Same as any other sport. Lance was a pro triathlete at, what, 14 years old (?) and was regularly beating adults at that age. A friend of mine's son is a golfer...he's 16 and regularly breaks par from the middle men's tees. Goes to the pro tees (7200 yards or so) and shoots par or a bit over...

Where you are from, you might have to go elsewhere to get top competition, since as you have told me before, there is not a lot of racing where you are.

Does anybody really know what Euro pro salaries are? I've looked for published reports and can't find any. I seriously doubt that the low level domestique guys on the UCI circuit make under $100K annually ($20-$30K sounds like the low end of US Pro dough) but I could be wrong. There are a handful of pros making over $1 million per year. Compare that to American baseball where the Mets just paid their 2nd string catcher - who played like 60 games last year and hit .244 - a baseball equivalent of a domestique - a one year deal @ $800,000. In baseball the AVERAGE salary is over a million. Not in pro cycling, even in Europe.

Pro cycling has to be the lamest paying big time sport. 'Big time'- yeah right. Maybe in Italy and France. For a few weeks a year. The rest of the world doesn't pay much notice.

Pat for your info it's not the fame that I'm hungry of. I just love the sport and now just looking how far I can go

Also, I want to try something different. Most people would go to school and study their ass of so that they can have a living for the life later on. So I thought, why not do the same for this sport that I'm in..

I want to try get this sport 'noticed' in my country too . It's not well supported by the goverment..

Well I donno...

"Carrer"? "Goverment"?

Stay in school. Learn to spell.

Bob

I have had several PM conversations with him. English is not his first language.

Lighten up...

Thanks for noticing my mistakes. Any more that I missed?

Ok guys, I know cycling at all but the top level is not going to make you any money but I suggest you take it easy on Roger.

Roger is young (middle school or HS I believe) so he has time. He is light at 128 lbs so it isn't like me (32 yrs old and 220 lbs) asking if he could do it...he actually has a chance if as some have said he has the genetics, and the desire and drive. I don't think a bunch of guys getting on him telling him how poor his chances are of pulling it off and discouraging him from doing it is really going to help. What if LA got on a web forum when he was in HS thinking of doing Tris and a bunch of people told him he would never make it.

Maybe Roger is the next LA...there is no way to know really.


How is your Japanese? Taiwanese? Chinese?
Rodger is from (and located in) Asia (sorry I don't know the exact country) and since English is his second (or third of fourth) language, maybe you could cut him a break. Hell I was born and raised in PA and I can't spell for $hit...I would cut a kid from another country some slack on the misspellings.

Nothing wrong with having dreams. Just don't stake your financial future on it, that's all.

Roger you are doing great, with your English...hall of a lot better than I would with your native language.

I know you are young, from the sound of it in decent shape and clearly have the desire. Here is my suggestion: Train your butt off and do junior races in your area. At the same time you should stay in school and keep your options open in case cycling doesn't work out. If you have the right stuff it will work itself out, you will dominate your level and people will say race at the next level and so on. If this isn't happening then you either aren't working hard enough or you don't have what it takes...only you can know which it is. If you don't make it and are still getting some sort of education you are fine and all you did was have some fun and get yourself into great shape.

I am not sure how much of our news you get in your country but there is a sports news tragedy (well not really a tragedy but...) in the news in the US. Several years ago there was a star running back who led his college (Ohio State) to a national championship as a freshman. He was to be the next great running back, making millions of dollars in the NFL when he went pro. Well the NFL has a rule that you have to be out of high school for 3 years before you can join their league so this player (Maurice Clarett) had to play in college a couple more years...but there was a problem there. Clarett didn't both with school, he took money from boosters and was thrown out of school. Clarett then sued the NLF for the right to come out early...he lost that. In the mean time his time went by so he declared himself eligible for the NFL draft last year. In the 2 years he was out of college but not in pro football he didn't train like he should have, he got slow and he got fat. He did get drafted but was cut in the preseason from an NFL team. In the last week he was arrested for holding someone up to steal a cell phone from them...he is in jail now. So now Clarett has no education, isn't good enough to play professional football and has a criminal record...his life isn't going to be so good because he took is natural talent for granted and made a bunch of stupid choices.

Don’t be the next Clarett, get your education and if you decide to race and want to make a living at it never take it for granted...you could always be stealing cell phones.

Totally wrong. I ride with people in the UK who have Commonwealth medals and easily win every elite level race they enter – yet they are not strong enough to be a pro. I know of British national champions who have moved to France and been unable to place even in French amateur races. Sean Yates (retired pro, Director at Discovery and friend of Lance) turns up at our amateur races and rides at 40mph at the front of a breakaway. They are on another level.


Wrong – the average football or basketball pro probably makes ten times more than a domestique on a continental or pro tour team. Wages come from advertising, which come from TV figures from rich viewers. Riding in the Tour of Murcia isn't going to get quite the TV audience of even a college football game.


You are wrong.

Actually they're much worse. Take the NFL for example 32 teams with 53 man rosters, minimum rookie salary over $200,000, minimum veteran salary over $500,000 and most players making over $1,000,000 per year. Next year's salary cap will be $95 million per team. (slightly less than $2million per roster spot).

By contrast there are 20 pro tour cycling teams. I recall reading that Discovery's operating budget (not salaries, but all expenses including salaries) was $12million per year, and Discovery is one of the best funded teams. So the chances of being well paid as a pro cyclist are much worse than other pro sports. There simply is not as much money in it.

Next point, Roger, you're young and enthusiatic, Go out ride, get the best coaching you can. Enter lots of races, and see what develops. Before long you'll know whether you have the inate ability to go far in cycling. Even if you never make it to a professional level, or even to a Cat 2, you'll have fun and be a better person for having tried. But as many have pointed out, the odds of making this a profession are low. Even if you can make a living at it, unless you rise to the level of LAnce Armstrong, Jan Ulrich, and a very few others, you will not make enough money, for long enough time that you can get by without an education. So work hard on your cycling, but also work hard in school. Succeeding in bike racing is very dependent on self discipline and structure, two attributes that also make a good student. Thus working hard on your studies is not inconsistent with your desire to race, and will only make you a better racer.

No.

roger89
fwiw here is my advice. If you have a dream and your young (like others mentioned in this thread) then don't let one single person stop you from living that dream. You'll find out for yourself sooner or later weather or not you want to continue on but in the mean time just go for it. One day you will either look back on a successful racing career or you will look back on the time and dedication you put into trying. In either case you will be a better man for it. Good luck.