{"id":561650,"date":"2026-05-02T02:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T02:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561650\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T02:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T02:04:19","slug":"most-of-the-women-are-making-less-than-10k-a-year-nobody-cares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561650\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMost of the women are making less than $10k a year… Nobody cares\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThose disparities remain clearly visible in 2026. At Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge Femmes<\/a>, the total prize fund stood at just over \u20ac22,000, compared to \u20ac50,000 for the men\u2019s race held on the same day.<\/p>\n

At an individual level, the difference is just as pronounced. A sixth-place finish in the women\u2019s race returned roughly \u20ac400 in official prize money, compared to around \u20ac1,500 for the equivalent placing in the men\u2019s event. In that scenario, Trek would step in to cover the shortfall, adding approximately \u20ac1,100.<\/p>\n

Set against the wider Spring Classics picture, those figures underline the scale of the gap<\/a>. On the men\u2019s side, leading riders have accumulated five-figure totals across the same block of races, with Tadej Pogacar approaching \u20ac100,000 in prize money alone across the spring, and both Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert also building substantial totals.\u201cNobody cares\u201d: Burke on the origins of Trek\u2019s approachSpeaking to Fortune<\/a>, Trek CEO John Burke outlined the thinking behind the initiative. \u201cOne of the things we do with the bike company is we try and make a difference in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also recalled the conditions he encountered when the team was first being developed, following a visit to European races. \u201cHe said, \u2018I was just over there in Europe, and it\u2019s embarrassing. Most of the women are making less than $10,000 a year. They get secondhand bikes. They stay at shitty hotels. They\u2019re flown in the night before the race. Nobody cares.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Building a team on equal footing<\/p>\n

From the outset, Trek aimed to provide riders with comparable support to their male counterparts. \u201cWe said we\u2019re going to treat women the same way the men are treated,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to pay them liveable wages, we\u2019re going to give them the best equipment, we\u2019re going to give them great coaching. We\u2019re going to take really good care of them the same way we take care of men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lizzie Deignan<\/a>, who joined the team while pregnant despite being ranked number one in the world at the time, highlighted the impact of that approach. \u201cTo be a professional athlete in every sense of the word is transformative in terms of performance,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way that anybody managing all those extra things that come with a second job has the capacity to perform at the same level as someone who\u2019s full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI felt incredibly grateful to Trek for the opportunity to join the team, because when I announced that I was pregnant, I didn\u2019t know what my future looked like in the sport. Despite being ranked number one in the world at the time, I didn\u2019t have a secure team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"lizziedeignan\"\/<\/p>\n

British cycling icon Lizzie Deignan is one of those to feel the financial disparity<\/p>\n

A gap that still shapes the sport<\/p>\n

Despite the progress made in recent years, the financial gap across comparable races remains evident. Prize funds continue to differ significantly between men\u2019s and women\u2019s events, leaving teams and sponsors to play a role in bridging that divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing that we do is be an example,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThe impact that Trek\u2019s made on women\u2019s cycling isn\u2019t just the Trek team. It\u2019s all of the teams who saw what Trek was doing, and they made big changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many people are focused on the short term and on what they get,\u201d he added. \u201cDoing good things builds a brand over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The figures from the Spring Classics underline that progress has been made, but also that the gap Trek set out to address has not yet been closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Those disparities remain clearly visible in 2026. At Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge Femmes, the total prize fund stood at just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109119,192642,121848,80881,101,56,54,55,23725],"class_list":["post-561650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-lidl-trek","tag-liege-bastogne-liege-femmes","tag-lizzie-deignan","tag-prize-money","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-womens-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}