Post by Bjorn De Winter

Tadej Pogačar just won a WorldTour stage race. His prize money? Less than one day of his own salary. That's not a diss on Tour de Suisse — it's the whole reason this issue of Watts & Wallets exists. This year the race reinvented itself: 3 fewer stages, loop-courses lifted straight from the Québec/Montréal playbook, and — a first — a calendar shared with the women's race. Real moves, aimed at making Tour de Suisse its own race instead of a Tour de France warm-up act. The prize money? It held the line. Stage for stage, basically flat — about the best a mid-calendar race can realistically do without a bigger broadcast deal behind it. The numbers that stopped us mid-spreadsheet 👇 💶 Two WorldTour teams earned exactly 350 € for the entire week of racing. 🚩 One of them then got fined more than that. Valid finish, net loss. ⚖️ The UCI's fine schedule didn't shrink with the race. Fixed tariffs, no matter how short the week gets. 📊 The whole men's prize purse ≈ 0,0124% of what the WorldTour's 20 teams are estimated to spend in a season. Receipts in the piece. "Running on Swiss Time" — live now 🚴‍♂️💨 Link in comments. #Cycling #TourDeSuisse #SportsBusiness #ProCycling