All that glitters is not gold. The Tour de France is the biggest event in professional cycling, the crown jewel of our sport and the highlight of the season. Yet below the glitter of the famous big-name riders, million-dollar salaries, $10,000 bike tech and global television coverage, there is deep concern about the viability of the sport.

One influential team manager told Cyclingnews that at least ten Tour de France teams are currently looking for a new title sponsor to secure their long-term funding, with three teams at risk of closure at the end of 2026.

Super teams like UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike and Decathlon CMA CGM have budgets estimated to be close to $50 million per season but most other teams are struggling to compete.

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Rider salaries are increasing far faster than inflation and faster than the cycling market can sustain. Pro cycling teams now compete with Formula 1 and British Premier League football clubs for title-sponsor deals.

Ineos recently welcomed Netcompany as title sponsor, with the deal reported to be worth €100 million ($117 million) over the next five years. Soudal-QuickStep are due to make a major announcement about their future on Monday’s rest day but the list of teams desperately searching for major new sponsors is growing, with teams often competing against each for sponsors.

Mobile communications giant Movistar have a contract with the Spanish team until 2029 but Bloomberg recently reported they are looking for a partner to help with the sponsorship cost or even an early exit. Australian businessman Gerry Ryan has confirmed that he will end his long-time funding of the Jayco AlUla team after 2027, while the NSN project is searching for a major title sponsor to fund the team they secured from the demise of Sylvan Adam’s Israel-Premier Tech set-up.

Picnic PostNL’s WorldTour license for 2027 depends on sponsor guarantees, while Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Education-EasyPost are looking for major new sponsors to help them step up or remain at super team level. Even Ineos have admitted they are willing to give up their naming rights to allow a new sponsor to take a major role and further boost their budget.

Teams are in an arms race to secure bigger sponsors to pay higher wages in the hope they can be successful in the Tour de France.

“Ten years ago, if a company sponsored a team with $25 million and asked if they could win the Tour de France, the answer would have been absolutely ‘Yes.’ Now the answer is ‘Not really,’” one team manager, who did not want to be identified, told Cyclingnews, highlighting the reality of the search for sponsors.

“That’s a hard pill to swallow for a lot of potential sponsors and so they go and look at F1 or soccer instead.”

Costs rising faster than investment

The 2026 men’s team budgets total €663 million according to UCI numbers seen by Cyclingnews, with average women’s team budgets rising even faster and now above $5 million. The average men’s team budget has risen from €31.1 million to €33.1 million for 2026. In 2023 it was just €26.2 million. A Cyclingnews team budget feature highlighted that 87% of WorldTour team revenue comes from sponsors, confirming the precariousness of the sport’s business model.

“The budgets of a few very well financed teams like UAE, Red Bull, Pinarello-Q36.5 are not correlated to the marketing metrics that they’re producing,” the team manager pointed out.

“Then the market value of the top five per cent of riders has become so high that cycling is no longer the bargain value proposition that it was 10 years ago. We’re all living dangerously by spending so much of our budgets on rider salaries.”

Visma-Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plugge is looking for a new title sponsor to increase his budget so he can continue to compete with Tadej Pogačar and UAE at the Tour de France.

Norwegian software brand Visma is not willing to spend more than $20 million per season. Plugge has backing from the owners of Pon and Dutch businessman and team shareholder Robert van der Wallen but is searching for a new sponsor willing to invest close to $30 million per year in the team.

“The search is going well, and we have a lot of interest in our team, which I think is rightfully so. I think we are one of the best sponsorship opportunities in sports,” Plugge told Cyclingnews during the first week of the Tour.

“If you’re a sponsor and want to be with a team that is strong in Grand Tours, then you should be with us.”

Plugge accepts that pursuing new sponsorship is like chasing Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France: It’s never easy and never stops.

“Sponsorship is a continuous search for everyone in sport, it’s the same in football, in Formula 1, it’s part of our business,” Plugge told Cyclingnews.

“Every year, sponsors go away and others come in. It can be stressful but it’s all part of the precarious business model of pro cycling.”

A growing number of stakeholders in the sport, including some team managers, UCI President David Lappartient and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme are in favour of some form of budget cap to try to create a level playing field and so more balanced and entertaining racing. However, major change is always slow in pro cycling and there is a fear that several teams will close due to a lack of new sponsors before any kind of budget cap is introduced.

“At the moment, the three or four richest teams hoover up all the best young riders. So that there is real competition, the most promising cyclists need to go to numerous, different teams,” Prudhomme told The Athletic.

“[UAE Team Emirates] have the means to buy the best riders every year. So it is necessary to rebalance that.

“And then, private entrepreneurs in businesses need to be able to still invest. Without that, it’s too expensive… it’s very important for the future of cycling. But I cannot say whether a solution will be found in the coming years.”

Plugge led the One Cycling project to try to change the business model of pro cycling but the UCI used their complex rulebook and veiled threats to block their plans last summer.

“The budget cap is very important, but I think the team should come up with the details,” Plugge said, highlighting the need for revenue sharing across the sport to create stability.

“There are two different economics in pro cycling. We have nothing to do with the economics of organisers, and the organisers have nothing to do with our economics. If we work together, then we can decide things together. As long as there are separate and often competing economies in the sport, we’re all going to struggle.”

The other leading team manager that Cyclingnews spoke to left the Tour in the first week to make a presentation and pitch to a potential new title sponsor. They were also part of One Cycling and believe in working together with Tour de France organiser ASO to create a more sustainable sport. The problem is if ASO, and the Amaury Family that owns ASO, will ever agree to revenue sharing.

“If team budgets were made up of 50% sponsorship revenue and 50% shared revenue, we’d have far fewer teams desperately looking for new sponsors,” the team manager suggested.

“It would also allow title sponsorships in the $10 million region, rather than much higher. I’d love to make a budget cap and business plan like that happen. The whole sport would benefit.”

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