“The balance needs to be restored” – Tour de France boss reveals salary cap talks as Tadej Pogacar’s UAE dominance fuels calls for change
CyclingMonday, 13 July 2026 at 18:30
Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates – XRG have spent the opening half of the 2026 Tour de France tightening their grip on the race. Their dominance has also pushed the salary-cap debate back towards the centre of the sport.
Tour de France general director Christian Prudhomme has publicly backed intervention and confirmed that discussions are taking place between organisers, the UCI, teams and riders.
“We are clearly in favour,” Prudhomme told The Athletic. “It is a practice already used in French rugby. Discussions are taking place with the UCI, the riders, the teams and ourselves.”
“At the moment, the three or four richest teams are signing all of the best young riders,” he continued. “For there to be genuine competition, the most promising riders need to join a wider range of different teams.”
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UAE become the obvious reference point
Pogacar remains the sport’s dominant rider, but UAE’s strength reaches far beyond their Tour leader. Isaac del Toro has developed into a Grand Tour contender, while the roster is packed with riders capable of leading major races or serving as elite support.
That depth has allowed UAE to compete across the calendar without diluting their Tour structure, while continuing to recruit riders who would command leadership elsewhere.
“They have the means to sign the best riders every year,” Prudhomme said. “So the balance needs to be restored. But I cannot say whether a solution will be found in the coming years.”
The advantage is not confined to contracts. Development teams, altitude programmes, nutrition, equipment, coaching and specialist staff all widen the gap between the richest squads and the rest.
Christian Prudhomme on stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de France
UCI proposal failed to win team support
The debate has already moved beyond theory. In March 2024, the UCI’s Professional Cycling Council approved the principle of a team budget cap, with the aim of addressing the widening financial disparity across the WorldTour. The proposed timetable pointed towards the 2026-2028 licence cycle.
The plan stalled after the teams rejected it. UCI president David Lappartient later said some of the resistance had come from smaller squads.
One model under discussion involved a luxury tax rather than a fixed ceiling, allowing teams to exceed an agreed threshold while redistributing part of that spending elsewhere in the peloton.
Prudhomme has used the language of a salary cap, while the UCI’s work has focused more broadly on team budgets. The difference would determine whether regulation touched only rider wages or the full performance operation.
Cycling’s sponsor model remains the obstacle
WorldTour teams remain overwhelmingly dependent on title sponsors, without the central broadcasting and commercial income seen in many sports that use salary caps.
That makes the politics difficult. Restricting expenditure does not create new revenue, secure sponsors or guarantee that smaller teams become more stable. Policing any system would be equally complicated. Bonuses, image rights, personal sponsorships, development teams and staff shared across men’s and women’s programmes would all have to be accounted for.
There is also the question of whether a cap would spread talent or merely suppress rider earnings while the best-funded organisations retained advantages elsewhere.
UAE are not alone in operating above much of the peloton. Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, Lidl – Trek and INEOS Grenadiers also possess resources unavailable to many rivals.
Pogacar’s superiority cannot be reduced to budget, but UAE’s ability to surround him with leaders, prospects and elite domestiques has made them the clearest example in Prudhomme’s argument. The UCI’s first push ended without agreement. Prudhomme has now reopened the issue while Pogacar and UAE continue to place cycling’s competitive imbalance under fresh scrutiny.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Hey Lance...reminder you have ZERO TdF wins ! That getting old and losing your memory is happening now!frieders314-07-2026
- Lack of support? Do they need someone to hold his hand when he gets dropped on the big mountain climbs?frieders314-07-2026
- Don’t cap rider salaries, cap team budgets. UAE can pay tadej 10 million, but then has to spread the other 10 mil across the rest of the team for exampleCrashjames13-07-2026
- Yes, sure, Pog had been injured. But Jonas said he would win by minutes and did it. in two days, as everyone remembers. But he hasn't yet won races all year round,, so people who want to bring up this topic tend to talk about Pog.Hills3313-07-2026
- I bet Seixas has extra cold AC.mrvco13-07-2026
- Now it's clear why Simon left.MajorPayne13-07-2026
- Wondering if there is any other teams at that hotel. Or if another team has anything to do with the AC. Don't laugh as stuff this paying fans to throw thumbtacks on the roan or crowd some riders on climbing stages have been talked about for yearsmd197513-07-2026
- First thing: That's not true. In 2023 Pogi completely blew up. Any cyclist that day would have beaten him. He said himself: 'I'm gone. I'm dead.' Vingegaard never blew up, but he loses 80% of the time when he goes mano a mano against Pogi. Second thing: We have "two" Pogi's... one from 2019-2023... and the second from 2024-on. He will not blow up again. OK, maybe Pogi will lose a stage against Jonas here and there, but he will win 80% of them. Ad acta!!!mus-musculuspeedypogigonzales13-07-2026
- To be honest, this is at least where I expected Pogi to be relative to the field, based on the parcours of the tour so far. I was actually surprised that he didn't take more time in Stages 2 and 4. If Jonas was ever going to challenge Pogi in GC, it was going to be late in week 3. His only hope has been that somehow he's more durable, that he recovers from the heat better, and that he can out-diesel Pogi in stages 19 and 20. I think it's unlikely, but I do think he still has a small chance.DAS13-07-2026
- Some chose to live/watch cycling with a 'glass half empty' mindset -- must be tiring.b3tlla13-07-2026
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