ProTour
(Formerly Division I trade team)
Roster Size: 25 rider minimum, 30 rider maximum
Minimum Salary: $47,000 ($38,000 for neo-pros). That’s not a lot of money for a pro athlete!
Bank Guarantee: Minimum $900,000, or 25% of the team’s payroll for staff.
UCI Registration Fee: $68,000, plus $34,000 license fee (to UCI ProTour reserve fund)
Contribution to Biological Passport Program: $163,000
Example: Quickstep, Astana, Columbia-High Road. There are 18 registered ProTour teams in 2009
Pro Continental
(Formerly Division II trade team)
Roster Size: 16 rider minimum, 25 rider maximum
Minimum Salary: $39,000 ($33,750,000 for neo-pros).
Bank Guarantee: Minimum $290,000, or 25% of the team’s payroll for staff.
UCI Registration Fee: $16,300
Contribution to Biological Passport Program: $81,500 for teams with a wildcard label, $10,000 per rider for teams without wildcard.
Example: Team BMC is only US Pro Conti team in 2009. Barloworld, Agritubel, Cervelo Test Team. There are 21 teams registered in 2009 as Pro Continental.
Continental
(Formerly Division III trade team)
Roster Size: 8 rider minimum, 16 rider maximum. There’s some dodgy exceptions to this that teams blatantly abuse to meet the under 28 age requirements, but that’s another blog post in itself.
Minimum Salary: None. Many are volunteer bike racers hoping to make it big.
Bank Guarantee: Minimum $5,500, or 10% of the team’s rider contracts.
UCI Registration Fee: $9,160
Contribution to Biological Passport Program: None
Example: In US: Rock Racing, OUCH-Maxxis, Colavita-Sutter, etc. In Australia: Drapac, Savings & Loans, Budget Forklifts, Fly V (Virgin Blue), AIS, Praties
You can find all the registered Pro-Continental and Continental registered teams here .
The only reason a team would register to be Pro Continental over Continental is so they can participate in the bigger races like ProTour events and possibly the Grand Tours (if their wildcard is drawn). Since many US team sponsors have no market in Europe it makes no sense for them to spend the money to register as Pro Continental when they have no interest in racing in Europe anyway. Continental status suits them just fine.
As you can see, if you’re gunning to become a professional athlete, you might want to consider baseball or cricket as your sport of choice if you’re in it for the money. I don’t think you can possibly find a more difficult and demanding sport over cycling and still get paid next to nothing.
This blog post was recopied from here.
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