Ireland's Eddie Dunbar and Sam Bennett are leaving their current teams - Australian World Tour outfit Team Jayco AlUla and French World Tour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. Both Irish men have signed for Swiss-registered Pro Continental team Q36.5 Pro Cycling for next year.
Bennett is a 35-year-old sprinter; a 10-time Grand Tour stage winner still looking to find his former powers ever since a career-changing injury in 2021. Dunbar is a 29-year-old climber with two Vuelta stage wins and 7th overall at the Giro on his palmares. But he is also prone to frequent and serious crashes that have badly impacted his progression.
They may be joining the same team, but the nature of their move into Q36.5 Pro Cycling is very different for these two Irish riders, especially when it comes to their salaries.
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One assumption about moving from the World Tour to Pro Continental - the top tier to the second division - is that it's a step backwards, especially in salary terms. However, some of the bigger ProConti teams are wealthier - or can certainly find more money for riders they really want - than the smaller World Tour squads.
Q36.5 Pro Cycling, for example, was able to sign Tom Pidcock last winter even though it was yet to ride a Grand Tour and though the British rider was reportedly being paid more than €3 million per year by Ineos Grenadiers. That move was made possible by Ivan Glasenberg, a mining billionaire said to be worth more than $10 billion.
Glasenberg owns a sizeable chunk of clothing brand Q36.5, obviously the headline sponsor of Q36.3 Pro Cycling Team. And two years ago he also bought a controlling share in Pinarello in a deal believed to be worth €200 million.
It's clear there is big money available to Q36.5 Pro Cycling. But that doesn't mean all of its riders are in the money. How Dunbar and Bennett have arrived into this team is crucial in determining the kind of salaries they have now agreed to, and how it compares to their previous earnings.
Eddie Dunbar | Star rising
Dunbar is leaving Team Jayco AlUla, which appears to have endured some financial issues of late. It almost collapsed as a team last week as it was unable to provide the UCI bank guarantee required to secure its licence for next year. Though the issue is now apparently resolved, the fumble offered an insight into the fact the team's pockets are not bottomless, far from it.
When Dunbar went to that team - for the start of the 2023 season on a three-year deal - he signed after four years with Sky/Ineos where his face never really seemed to fit.
He was denied Grand Tour starts and secured only two wins - in more minor events - during his four years with the British team.
The fact Ineos Grenadiers selected him for the Giro in 2019 and then never picked him again for any three-week race was a disaster for Dunbar. It denied him the chance to showcase his abilities in the races best suited to those abilities; tests of super endurance in the high mountains after Grand Tour fatigue has set in.
It meant his bargaining power, in terms of big salary demands, would have been limited as he left Ineos Grenadiers for Jayco AlUla. Indeed, when signing Dunbar in 2023, former Jayco AlUla manager Matt White described him as a "moneyball" rider. That means an athlete that didn't break the bank but has abilities not spotted, or not properly used, by other teams.
However, since leaving Sky/Ineos, Dunbar has gotten his chance in Grand Tours. And though he has crashed out of some of those races, he has scored big results in others.
In 2023 he was 7th overall at the Giro - and also took 9th at Tour de Romandie (2.UWT) and 7th at Tour de Pologne (2.UWT). In 2024, though he crashed out of the Giro after two stages, he went on to the Vuelta and won two stages, including the queen stage on the Picón Blanco summit finish on the penultimate day.
This year he was forced out of Tirreno-Adriatico (2.UWT) in March due to a crash and also abandoned the Tour de France in July after a stage 7 crash, a day after placing 4th on stage 6.
However, his 8th place in the TT at Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT) in June was the best TT result of his career. His 13th in the TT stage at Tirreno-Adriatico (2.UWT) in March was also very impressive indeed for a pure climber not regarded as a top tester.
His Giro ride two years ago, his Vuelta success last year and, to a lesser extent, his TT form this year means he was a much hotter prospect this year in contract talks as he prepared to leave Jayco AlUla than he was when signed for that team three years ago.
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And that means his salary with Q36.5 is now higher - very likely much higher - than it was at Team Jayco AlUla or Ineos Grenadiers, even though he is moving from the World Tour to a ProConti team.
Sam Bennett | Close to career end
For Bennett, the trajectory is a bit different than Dunbar. Bennett moved from German team Bora-hansgrohe - one of the richest teams in the sport - to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale two years ago. He made that move after a slower period in his career while with Bora-hansgrohe for 2022 and 2023.
His transfer to Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale was a step back in salary terms and also in the level of lead-out support open to him.
Ironically, during his time with the French team, Decathlon bought the squad and is now injecting big money into it, along with new sponsors CMA CGM, a global player in maritime, land, air and logistics solutions.
So Bennett leaves a French team that is on the rise in the money pecking order of the World Tour. And he is going into a smaller team, albeit one with a billionaire as owner of its title sponsor, Q36.5.
Bennett's earning peak was likely during his second stint at Bora-hansgrohe in 2022 and 2023. He went into contract talks with that team as one of the hottest properties in top tier bunch sprinting.
He was coming out of two seasons with Deceuninck-QuickStep. He had won seven races in 2020; including two stages and the green jersey at the Tour de France and a stage of La Vuelta.
Though he had been injured in the second half of 2021, he had still won seven races in the first months of that year, and five of them were World Tour wins.
In 2021, when he was in talks to sign for Bora-hansgrohe nobody knew his knee injuries would become protracted and ultimately limit his ability to win big races as frequently as he once did. And because nobody knew the post-injury phase would be harder for Bennett, his injury would not have impacted his salary expectations, meaning his 2022-23 salary would have been the biggest of his career.
In 2022 he won three races; Eschborn-Frankfurt (1.UWT) and two stages at La Vuelta. The number of wins was lower, yes, but the quality was still there. But in 2023, after winning his first race of the season - the opening stage at Vuelta a San Juan (2.Pro) - he went on to collect just two more victories. And both of those were at Sibiu Cycling Tour (2.1) in Romania; a minor event with no other big name sprinters present.
His results during those two years, and the fact he was getting a little older, meant when he left Bora-hansgrohe for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, the salary he commanded was lower. And the support he received was also much weaker, which is a significant career-changing issue for sprinters; further accelerating the run of weaker results.
Over the past two years, Bennett has won nine races for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. And while that strike rate is decent, those wins came at smaller races rather than in the Grand Tours or other prestigious events.
Bennett returned to the Tour de France in 2024 - for the first time since his glorious Tour of 2020 - and took a best result of 4th on a stage before abandoning with illness the next day, on stage 17.
This year he was picked for the Giro after winning four races in the early months of the year; two stages apiece at Tour de la Provence (2.1) and Région Pays de la Loire Tour (2.1). However, he scored just one top 10 result at the Giro - 6th on stage 4. He was never in contention to ride the Tour, a race he had insisted he must go back to and perform in.
And as that two-year stint with Decathlon AG2 La Mondiale was winding to a close late this summer, Bennett would not have enjoyed a strong hand in terms of salary expectations when in talks with teams.
And that means Bennett's deal with Q36.5 Pro Cycling - which appears to be for one year - will be smaller than what he is used to. His salary will definitely be lower and if there are strong lead-out men for him in the team roster, their names don’t exactly jump off the page.
Bennett will certainly not be on as much money as he earned at Bora-hansgrohe in 2022-2023; his peak earning years, without question. His salary for the next year is likely also less than what he earned over the past two years with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
