Women’s professional cycling just produced one of its loudest financial statements yet. On October 21, 2026, Movistar Team confirmed it had signed 23-year-old Spanish climber Paula Blasi from UAE Team ADQ on a three-year deal running through 2029 — a move that, according to widely reported figures, places her among the best-paid riders in the women’s peloton and pushes the sport’s salary ceiling into territory it has never occupied before.
What Happened
Movistar officially announced the signing of Blasi on a three-year contract for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 seasons. The team confirmed the length of the deal but, as is standard in cycling, did not disclose the financial terms. Those came instead from the Spanish newspaper MARCA, which reported that Blasi will earn more than €600,000 per season — a package worth over €1.8 million across the three years — and that Movistar paid a reported €85,000 release fee to free her from her existing UAE Team ADQ contract a year early.
It is important to be precise here: the signing and its length are confirmed by Movistar, while the salary figures are reported by MARCA and have not been officially verified by the team or the rider. Blasi, speaking around the World Championships, was quoted by MARCA as saying she “turned down a much bigger contract to race where I wanted.” If the reported numbers are accurate, several outlets suggest she would rank inside the top five earners in women’s cycling.
Representing Blasi is Alex Carera, the agent who also looks after men’s superstar Tadej Pogacar. Back in May 2026, Carera told The Athletic that his stated goal was to make Blasi “the first female cyclist with a salary of one million euros.” The Movistar deal does not reach that mark — but it is the clearest sign yet that the question we asked earlier this year, who would sign women’s cycling’s first €1 million deal, is no longer hypothetical.
Why It Matters
To understand why this transfer is such a landmark, you have to look at where women’s cycling salaries have been. According to UCI data reported via Het Nieuwsblad, the average Women’s WorldTour salary in 2024 was around €85,000, with a median closer to €65,000. The sport only introduced a minimum salary in 2020, set at €15,000; it has since climbed to €35,000 in 2024 and €38,000 for 2025, where it remained for 2026.
Against that backdrop, a reported €600,000-a-season salary is extraordinary — roughly seven times the 2024 average and around 16 times the current minimum. For perspective on how fast things have moved, when Spanish veteran Mavi Garcia joined Movistar in 2018, her former coach revealed her salary at the time was just €25,000. In under a decade, the top of the women’s market has multiplied many times over. These are not like-for-like comparisons, but the trajectory is unmistakable.
Blasi has earned the investment with a breakthrough season that few saw coming. In 2026 she won La Vuelta Femenina on her first Grand Tour appearance, overtaking Anna van der Breggen on the brutal slopes of the Angliru to become the first Spanish rider to win her home tour. She also claimed the Amstel Gold Race with a solo attack roughly 26 kilometres from the line, won the Tour Feminin des Pyrenees and the Volta a Catalunya, finished third at the Tour Down Under and La Fleche Wallonne, and placed fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes. In short, she became one of the most complete stage racers and Classics riders in the world almost overnight.
Her move also lands in the middle of a wider debate about money and competitive balance. As more riders command six-figure deals, questions about whether a handful of super-teams will dominate have grown louder — a concern that prompted talk of a salary cap to rebalance the sport. At the same time, women’s racing is enjoying its biggest commercial moment, with an expanded calendar and growing prize-money parity helping to justify the rising wages at the very top.
What This Means For You
If you follow women’s racing, Blasi’s contract is a signal that the sport is maturing into a genuine professional career path — at least for its biggest stars. A rider winning a Grand Tour and a Monument in the same year can now be rewarded in a way that was unthinkable five years ago, which helps keep the best talent in the sport rather than losing it to other careers.
But the story also has a cautionary edge that is worth watching. The gulf between a reported €600,000 salary and a €38,000 minimum is enormous, and most of the peloton still sits much closer to the floor than the ceiling. As a fan, the healthiest sign for the sport’s long-term growth is not just the blockbuster deals at the top, but whether the minimum wage and the median keep rising too. Keep an eye on both numbers over the next couple of transfer windows — they will tell you far more about women’s cycling’s health than any single headline salary.
For aspiring racers, Blasi’s path is instructive. She rode for a development squad in 2025 before being promoted mid-season, then translated opportunity into results at the biggest races. The message is simple: in the current market, race-winning performances at the sport’s marquee events — Grand Tours, Monuments and World Championships — are what move salaries, far more than steady, anonymous consistency.
Key Takeaways
- Movistar confirmed the signing of Paula Blasi, 23, from UAE Team ADQ on a three-year deal (2027-2029); the team did not disclose financial terms.
- MARCA reports the deal is worth more than €600,000 per season (over €1.8 million total), plus a reported €85,000 release fee — figures not officially confirmed.
- That reported salary is roughly seven times the 2024 Women’s WorldTour average and about 16 times the current €38,000 minimum.
- Her agent, Alex Carera (who also represents Tadej Pogacar), has openly targeted making Blasi the first woman on a €1 million salary.
- Blasi earned the move with a stunning 2026: La Vuelta Femenina, Amstel Gold Race, the Pyrenees and Catalunya, plus podiums at the Classics and fifth at the Tour de France Femmes.
Salary figures in this article were reported by MARCA and relayed by outlets including Domestique and Brujula Bike; the signing and contract length were confirmed by Movistar Team.
