Myself, friends, and teammates have had people bribe them to win out of a break many times in amateur races. Its sad, but if some performance enhancing dad is going to offer a basically broke racer his entire $500 prize for the win the they wouldn't say know. I could easily see a pro taking 150,000 euros to do the same.

OK lets look at some numbers.

The winner in 2010 got 20,000 euros and second place gets 10,000 euros.
Now the prize money gets divided amongst the team.

What does the winner get after the race? Points for the team? Endorsements in that country?

But Vinoukorov is from Kazakhstan, he had already had won this race in 2005. What more can he stand to gain? Why pay 150,000 euros? Is it really worth that much money?
Saying he won a top classic after coming back from a doping offense?

I don't think Kolobnev had it that day in the final 2 Km.

http://www.letour.com/2010/LBL/COURSE/u ... ulier.html

PLACES PRIZES
1st 20,000 €
2nd 10,000 €
3rd 5,000 €
4th 2,500 €
5e 2,000 €
6th 1,500 €
7th 1,500 €
8th 1,000 €
9th 1,000 €
10th 500 €
11th 500 €
12th 500 €
13th 500 €
14th 500 €
15th 500 €
16th 500 €
17th 500 €
18th 500 €
19th 500 €
20th 500 €
Totaux 50,000 €


TOTAL : 50,000 €



Final best climber classification

For every climb:

au 1st : 250 €

Total 250 € x 10 = 2,500 €

Overall best climber classification

au 1st : 2,000 €
au 2nd : 750 €
au 3rd : 500 €

Total: 3,250 €

Total prize money for the best climber classification: 5,750 €
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY: 55,750 €

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Its pretty clear from the emails what he wanted out of it: the public's admiration for him being able to still win clean or that's at least he claims he was.

Well, prize money probably doesn't reflect the financial significance of a win. That's why the champs often just give the money away to the teammates. It's the points, the endorsements, the big contract etc.

Any pro that gets 2-3 liege level wins for the year won't have difficulty landing a $1.5 million contract for the next year with some a couple hundred K in endorsements especially with Vino's "gutsy" image. Isn't Gilbert making 5 million euros?

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As everyone here has seen, it's never about the net take home pay of the winnings which motivates the briber, it's generally ego and secondarily, in pro races, future contract considerations.

I would never offer nor accept a bribe, it's not why I ride, but as mentioned here, there are always ones who do. Can you imagine trying to prove someone did it? Inrng did a good piece on this angle, don't have the link to hand.

My one and only race win had a purse of a 100chf gift certificate. I think I'll frame it

Yeah right with Vino at the end of his career. He was taking it month by month and would quit at any time if he had no results. But Vino to his credit has a lot of determination. Aside from his doping he does have all the qualities of a champion of winning at all costs

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

No 1.5 to 2 million

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

I can understand the significance of bribing in a sport with so much tactics/communication involved, but I still don't see how that justifies it, we chastise dopers but we're accepting the ways of Vino supposedly paying Kolobnev off? Doesn't seem right to me. At least with doping, you have riders that are actually using their (modified) bodies to better each other- paying off to win just seems very lowly even if it is engrained in the culture. Vino as Astana Team Manager is sounding fishier and fishier. So much for changing times

There are some many other deals at the director and manager level that it's not even funny. And it's been going on since the dawn of sport.

As a side note:

In the 2011 Tour de France Alexandr Kolobnev tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, a masking agent that can hide the presence of performance enhancing drugs. He was subsequently pulled from the tour by his team,[7][8] and his results for that stage were annulled.[9] Despite his B sample also testing positive he only received a fine from the Russian cycling federation.[10] However this was later appealed by the UCI to CAS, although he was subsequently cleared of any charges on February 29, 2012.[11] Kolobnev rejoined Team Katusha in March 2012.[2]

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Actually I think their salaries are going up pretty quickly lately.

According to the following site, Gilbert makes 3.5 million Euros a year at BMC.

http://www.amstelgoldrace.nl/index.php? ... guageId=12

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one day i hope to be fast enough , that someone approaches me to bribe a loss out of me in a race

heck im giving that service for free now..... =\

I doubt that. He's no GT contender.

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Winning a shit ton of classics sure worth that much may be not 3.5 million much but I would think at least 1.5m++
Cavendish is like what, £2m a year for comparison sake.

While I am completely comfortable with "deals" in cycling, I think there is a certain level of discretion that should be exercised. If you are wiring money and leaving a chain of emails, then you are just "low class" deserve to be chastised.
Just hand the guy a wad of cash in private and keep your mouth shut about it.

Rick, in other words, the only crime is getting caught. You should go into politics - or maybe you already are.