Last Updated: July 13, 2026
Two years ago, Paula Blasi was riding for close to the women’s WorldTour minimum salary. Now the 23-year-old Spaniard is at the center of the most dramatic pay story in the history of women’s cycling — and the sport’s long-awaited €1 million contract has never looked closer.
The money debate is not confined to the women’s peloton: Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme has called for a salary cap to rebalance men’s super-teams.
What Happened
According to reports from Escape Collective and Velo, Blasi has agreed to leave UAE Team ADQ a year early to join Movistar from 2027, triggering a release clause in her existing deal. The figures being discussed for her next contract — reportedly in the region of €800,000 to €850,000 per season — would make her one of the highest-paid riders in the women’s peloton almost overnight.
Her agent, Alex Carera, reportedly pushed to make Blasi’s contract the first genuine €1 million deal in women’s cycling. By most accounts it fell just short of that symbolic barrier — but the fact that the number is even being negotiated for a rider who was on roughly the WorldTour minimum (around €40,000) as recently as 2025 tells you how fast the ground is shifting.
The rise itself is the headline. In the space of about a month this spring, Blasi won the 2026 La Vuelta Femenina, took the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition, finished third at Flèche Wallonne and placed fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. That is a Grand Tour and a Monument-level classic haul packed into a handful of weeks — the kind of form that turns a development-squad graduate into a marquee signing.
Why It Matters
The €1 million figure matters because it has been the sport’s glass ceiling. When Demi Vollering left SD Worx-Protime, she was reported to be seeking a salary approaching €1 million; sources indicated FDJ-Suez got close but did not quite break through. Lotte Kopecky is thought to sit around €900,000, with Elisa Longo Borghini slightly behind at UAE Team ADQ. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney’s base has reportedly climbed toward €600,000, while stars such as Lorena Wiebes, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Marianne Vos and Elisa Balsamo are believed to earn in the region of €500,000.
Below that elite tier, the picture is very different. Most of the top 20 best-paid women reportedly earn somewhere between €200,000 and €500,000, and the WorldTour minimum still hovers near €40,000 — the figure Blasi herself started on. That gap between a handful of superstars and the rest of the bunch is exactly why a near-million-euro deal for a 23-year-old is such a talking point.
It also reflects a broader spending surge. With ambitious outfits such as Lidl-Trek and Tudor investing aggressively and a reported 200-plus riders coming off contract, the 2026-27 transfer window is shaping up to be as chaotic as any the women’s peloton has seen, with Kate Courtney’s 30-month move to FDJ UNITED-SUEZ among its marquee deals. Blasi’s move — a young rider using a release clause to force an early switch — is the clearest sign yet that women’s cycling now has a genuine, competitive market for talent, not just a fixed ladder of legacy contracts. It is the same star power that makes races like the Tour de France Femmes increasingly unmissable.
What This Means For You
If you follow women’s racing, expect the on-road product to keep getting better. Bigger budgets mean deeper teams, stronger lead-out trains and more riders able to train and recover full-time rather than juggling second jobs — the same professionalisation that transformed the men’s peloton a generation ago. The battles you see at events like the national championships and one-day classics should only get sharper.
If you are a developing rider or coach, Blasi’s trajectory is a template worth studying: she moved up from a development team, delivered results in the races that carry ranking points and prestige, and then let performance drive her value. In a market this active, a breakout spring can reset an entire career in months.
And if you are simply a fan of the sport’s economics, keep watching the release-clause mechanism. As contracts get bigger, they also get more complex — buyouts, exit clauses and early releases are becoming as important to team-building as the racing itself. That financial machinery sits alongside the sport’s other big 2026 shake-ups, including the new UCI equipment rules reshaping how teams operate.
Key Takeaways
- Paula Blasi, 23, is reportedly moving to Movistar from 2027 on a deal worth around €800,000-€850,000 per season — just short of women’s cycling’s first €1 million contract.
- She rose from roughly the WorldTour minimum (about €40,000) in 2025 to a marquee signing after winning the 2026 La Vuelta Femenina and Amstel Gold Race within weeks.
- The €1 million barrier remains unbroken: Vollering, Kopecky and Longo Borghini sit closest, while most top-20 riders earn €200,000-€500,000.
- A busy 2026-27 market — with Lidl-Trek and Tudor spending big and 200+ riders off contract — signals rapid professionalisation of the women’s peloton.
Reporting on Blasi’s transfer and women’s cycling salaries via Escape Collective, Velo and Cyclingnews. Figures are as reported and may change as deals are confirmed.
