
Vollering celebrates victory in Nice. (Photo: Gruber Images)
Demi Vollering rode away from Nice on Sunday with the yellow jersey, three stage wins, and a €50,000 winner’s check at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Tadej Pogačar banked 10 times that amount when he won the men’s Tour de France just two weeks earlier.
Despite sharing the Tour de France brand name and ownership via ASO, the economics of the two races remain worlds apart.
The entire prize purse for the 2026 comes in at €260,750, barely more than half of the €500,000 awarded to the winner of the men’s Tour de France alone.
The men’s race paid out more than €2.3 million across three weeks of racing for cycling’s richest race.
Neither race has seen its prize-money payouts change significantly over the past five years since the Femmes’ revival in 2022.
Of course, comparing the two races isn’t exactly apples to apples.
The men’s Tour is 21 stages and roughly 3,300km, and is the marquee race that’s part of commercial empire dating back to the early 1900s. The Tour de France Femmes, brought back in 2022, stands at nine stages and covers about one-third of the distance.
Race organizer ASO gets defensive when asked about the prize money gap, and argues that the Tour de France Femmes is already the richest event in the Women’s WorldTour.
Still, some of the side-by-side comparisons are eye-popping.
The entire Tour de France Femmes prize purse remains worth only about half of what the men’s winner brings home for yellow in July.
A stage victory at the men’s Tour pays €11,000, compared to €4,000 at the Tour de France Femmes. The winners of the points and mountains classifications at the men’s Tour each earn €25,000, while Puck Pieterse and Lorena Wiebes won €3,000 apiece in the Femmes for the same jerseys.
The team paydays are even more extreme.
Vollering’s FDJ United-Suez squad topped the 2026 Femmes prize money table with €77,080, thanks to her overall victory and three stage wins. Runner-up Canyon-SRAM earned €51,500, and Elisa Longo Borghini’s UAE Team L’Imad cashed in €37,980.
The numbers fall off a cliff the further down on the list.
Visma-Lease a Bike took home only €7,370 after a disappointing week that saw defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot abandon.
Four teams left the race with less than €500, and French wildcard squad Mayenne Monbana My Pie departed with zero prize money. Nothing. Zilch.
In contrast, UAE Emirates-XRG earned a record-breaking €832,750 during Pogačar’s dominant 2026 Tour campaign, with one team earning more than three times the value of the women’s prize fund combined.
Fair or not fair?
Below is the complete breakdown the prize money for each team at the 2026 Tour de France Femmes:
| Team | Prize Money |
| FDJ United-SUEZ | €77,080 |
| Canyon//SRAM | €51,500 |
| UAE Team L’IMAD | €37,980 |
| Team SD Worx-Protime | €18,940 |
| Lidl-Trek | €14,880 |
| EF Education-Oatly | €12,140 |
| AG Insurance-Soudal Team | €10,480 |
| Movistar Team | €8,860 |
| Team Visma | Lease a Bike | €7,370 |
| Fenix-Premier Tech | €6,740 |
| Uno-X Mobility | €5,140 |
| Human Powered Health | €3,180 |
| Cofidis Women Team | €1,490 |
| St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 | €1,420 |
| Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi | €1,050 |
| Ma Petite Entreprise | €760 |
| Liv-AlUla-Jayco | €750 |
| Team Picnic PostNL | €400 |
| Lotto Intermarché Ladies | €340 |
| VolkerWessels Cycling Team | €250 |
| Mayenne Monbana My Pie | €0 |