The Tour de France: How The World's Most Challenging Race Became A $150 Million Business
The Tour de France breaks bodies, burns calories, and somehow turns massive profits without charging fans a dime. Today's newsletter breaks down the business behind cycling's most famous event.
Every July, nearly 200 cyclists race across thousands of miles of French terrain. They cover city streets, hilly farmland, and mountain terrain, pushing their bodies to the limit by burning more than 120,000 calories across 21 stages. The top teams will spend over $50 million for the chance to win just $3 million in prize money, and millions of fans will get to watch the action streetside without ever spending a dime on tickets.
This is the Tour de France — the most physically demanding and unique competition in sports. The rivalry between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard will draw in casual viewers, but beneath the pageantry lies a thriving business that generates more than $150 million in revenue each year from media rights, sponsorships, and host fees.
It’s sort of a paradox. The organizers behind the Tour de France don’t sell tickets or pass on any of the event’s annual revenue to its competing teams. Yet, oil-rich Gulf states still empty their pockets each year for a chance at the yellow jersey, bringing 30+ employees and dozens of buses, team cars, trucks, and equipment on a month-long journey across France. The sport’s top riders make millions of dollars (despite the first-place prize being just $590,000), and two-time champion Tadej Pogačar even wears a custom $300,000 Richard Mille watch that weighs just 32 grams while he races.
The Tour de France is one of my favorite sporting events because it has something for everyone. History? The race began in 1903. Crowds? Ten million people will watch the race in person, while 2 billion others view it on television. Strategy? Cyclists work together as a team to help the leader achieve the lowest possible time, with Pogačar leading Vingegaard by less than 90 seconds across the last four years of Tour de France action. The logistics are equally insane, with a crew of 4,500 people — teams, media, security, medical staff, and sponsors — traveling along the 2,075-mile route.
At 2,075 miles, this year’s race throughout France is equivalent to the straight-line distance between Augusta National in Georgia and Pebble Beach Golf Links in California, and it would take about 70-90 days on foot if walking 25-30 miles per day.
A Brief History: From Newspaper Stunt to Global Spectacle
While the Tour de France is a billion-dollar sports property today, based on industry-standard revenue multiples, the race began as a marketing stunt to sell newspapers.
The story goes like this: A group of men started a French newspaper called L’Auto in 1899 to compete with Le Vélo, the most popular sports publication in France at the time. But after a few years, no progress had been made, so L’Auto’s editor called an all-hands meeting to drum up ideas to increase sales. This is when 26-year-old cycling journalist Géo Lefèvre suggested a six-day cycling race around France. Cycling races had been used to sell papers in the past, but no one had attempted a 1,500-mile race.
The first Tour de France began only two months later. The initial event consisted of only six stages, each covering 250 miles, with cyclists often having to ride through the night. The race began in Paris, then proceeded to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes, before returning to Paris. Only 24 cyclists finished the race, with the winner taking home 12,000 francs (roughly equivalent to $75,000 today).
Most importantly, the inaugural Tour de France was a tremendous success from a publicity standpoint. L’Auto tripled its circulation, making the race an annual event.
For the next 60+ years, the Tour de France operated similarly. Cyclists carried spare inner tubes around their shoulders to repair bikes themselves, and some even say that doping allegations trace all the way back to the initial race, as riders would drink alcohol and use stimulants as a way to numb the pain during the endurance event.
A turning point then came in 1965 when the event was taken over by the Amaury family’s Amaury Sport Organization (ASO). Under ASO’s stewardship, the Tour de France adopted television and expanded internationally, transforming the event into a global powerhouse that attracted lucrative media rights deals and blue-chip sponsors.
Inside The Tour de France’s $150 Million Business
The Tour de France is unique in that it is one of the world’s biggest sporting events — only the World Cup and the Olympics are bigger — yet it doesn’t generate any money from ticket sales. Instead, they monetize the event through broadcast rights, sponsorship deals, and hosting agreements with dozens of cities throughout France.
Television and digital broadcast rights are the single biggest revenue source for the Tour, accounting for roughly 50-55% of its income. The event produces thousands of hours of coverage each year, with France’s public TV network reportedly paying $25 million annually. To support the production, the race’s televised feed requires at least 260 camera personnel, 35 technical vehicles, and six aircraft (helicopters or planes). The production budget is substantial, but the result is ~$75 million in TV deals across 190 countries and over 100 TV channels.
Second to television rights are sponsorships, contributing roughly 40% to the tour’s annual revenue mix. Nearly everything that you see on television has a brand attached to it — from the yellow, white, green, and polka-dot jerseys to the podium backdrops and inflatable arches along the start/finish lines. French bank LCL reportedly pays about $12 million annually for its name on the yellow jersey alone, with all of the other deals adding up to more than $50 million in annual revenue. Perhaps the most unique activation is the publicity caravan, where 30+ brands pay six-figure sums to participate in a caravan of cars that hand out promotional products (t-shirts, gear, etc.) to the crowd before each race begins.
With ASO maximizing the tour’s economics through TV rights and sponsorships, host city fees have become a smaller part of the equation — maybe 5-10% of the total. Hosting the Grand Depart (the start) still costs more than $10 million each year, while individual stages cost a few hundred thousand dollars each. Cities can justify the cost because not only is it good marketing for the town, but visitors are often spending money too (since they don’t have to pay for tickets). The declining reliance on host fees also comes with a silver lining: Rather than adjusting its route based on what cities were willing to pay the highest host fee, ASO can now be more strategic, visiting new towns or focusing on visually appealing regions.
Since ASO is a private business, the tour’s profitability numbers are somewhat of a mystery. However, estimates indicate that the event operates on a budget of $100 to $150 million annually. Most of this money goes straight to ASO’s bottom line, as individual cities are responsible for their own expenses, and only $3 million in prize money is distributed to the riders as a reward. Unlike other sports leagues, the Tour de France doesn’t pass along any of its TV or sponsorship money to its teams.
Team Financials: Big Budgets (but no real prize money)
While ASO retains nearly all profits from the Tour de France, there’s another business side of the event that is equally as important: the teams and riders who actually compete. Each professional cycling team is essentially its own private entity. Since teams don’t receive any share of centralized revenues (TV money), they bear the costs of participating themselves, usually funded by corporate sponsors or wealthy owners.
There are 23 teams competing in this year’s Tour de France, each fielding 7-8 riders for a total of 184 competitors. Similar to how Formula 1 operated before the introduction of the cost cap, a team’s budget makes a significant difference. The top teams (UAE Team Emirates, Ineos Grenadiers, Team Visma) spend $50 to $75 million annually, while the bottom teams have budgets that barely reach $15 million annually.
This wealth inequality can make a huge difference during events like the Tour de France. Rider salaries usually account for about 75% of a team’s budget, with lead cyclists making over $5 million and a support cyclist making a few hundred thousand dollars. However, budgets also extend far beyond just salaries. Top teams bring dozens of staff members (mechanics, drivers, sports doctors, nutritionists), roughly a million dollars in equipment (each rider has ~6 bikes that cost ~$15,000), and enough energy gels, water bottles, and air purifiers to keep everyone in top form during the event.
Roughly 70% of a team’s budget usually comes from its title sponsor. Before the mid-1950s, most teams were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers or national federations. However, as bike sales began to decline in the 1950s and 1960s, the sport opened itself up to outside sponsors, leading to an influx of diverse brands, including those from liquor, beauty, car, and supermarket companies, as well as billionaire fans.
These corporations aim to generate a return on their investment through increased exposure. In cycling, sponsors get hours of logo visibility during broadcasts, especially if their team is successful or aggressive in races. Top teams attract sponsors by winning races, but since these contracts can be pulled on a moment’s notice, it’s not uncommon to see lower-ranked teams launch solo breakaways during a stage. These riders aren’t necessarily trying to win the stage; they are simply trying to get enough TV time for their sponsors to be happy enough to renew their deal the following year.
The problem with this model is that if a sponsor decides to withdraw, the team often has no other income to replace it. The lucky ones find someone to replace the previous sponsor, while the unlucky ones usually disappear from the sport overnight.
It’s also why all the best cyclists flock to the most well-funded teams. Expensive equipment and massage therapists are helpful, but stability is more important. Not only is the Tour de France’s first-place prize small ($590,000) in comparison to total revenue ($150 million), but riders share that money with everyone else on their team (support riders, mechanics, etc.), making their salaries all the more important.
The Tour de France’s Impact and Future
Over more than a century, the Tour de France has proven to be a resilient and adaptable institution. It has survived wars (no races during WWI and WWII), scandals (doping eras that threatened its credibility), and shifting media landscapes (from print to radio to television to internet streaming). Today, the Tour de France stands not only as the pinnacle of cycling but as one of the world’s most popular sporting events.
The Tour de France boosts local economies, provides global brands with invaluable exposure, and even subtly promotes France’s image and tourism on the world stage.
Few events can match the Tour’s blend of tradition, scale, and commercial efficiency. With no ticket revenue, minimal prize money, and a media machine that spans continents, it remains one of the most profitable paradoxes in sports.
No one knows what the future will bring, but if history tells us anything, the Tour de France will be ready to adapt. It’s a century-old tradition that has mastered the art of reinvention, proving that you don’t need ticket sales to build a billion-dollar sports empire.
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Always a fun event to watch, despite its controversies. PS there’s also a Women’s TdeF. It’s been an on-and-off race, but with the rise of women’s sports, might be worth at least a footnote Joe 😊🚴🏻♀️🚴♀️🚴🏾♀️
https://www.letourfemmes.fr/en/overall-route