Cycling Weekly on the cost of running a WorldTour cycling team

For Cycling Weekly, Chris Marshall-Bell examined the budgets of successful WorldTour cycling teams: At cycling’s World Tour seminar in Geneva, Switzerland, in December, UCI President David Lappartient’s slideshow illustrated the projected cost structure of professional teams for the 2026 season – encompassing men’s and women’s WorldTeams, and the second-tier men’s and women’s ProTeams. The data showed the combined budgets of the 18 men’s World Teams in 2026 will reach €620-630m, up from €570m last year. The average budget will be €33m, with a median of €28m. The 15 Women’s WorldTeams will share €80m, an increase of €10m from 2025 despite having one fewer team. The average budget is set at €5.7m. UCI ProTeams – such as Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello-Q36.5 – have an average budget of €9.4m, while their female counterparts come in at €1.9m. CW found that about 90% comes from sponsors (not a surprise) and pointed out that merch and attendance revenues aren’t really a thing since people don’t pay…