Professional cyclists or triathletes rarely open their books and show us how much they earn in a year. But Ruth Astle is the exception. The British triathlete was an age group winner in the 2019 Ironman World Championships and has since gone into the pro game, winning Ironman Mallorca and Ironman South Africa in 2021.
Last year she place 5th at the Ironman Worlds - in the pro race - winning $20,000. She also won Ironman Israel, scooping a prize of $15,000, as well as generating income from other events, rankings and sponsors.
She completed her second season as a professional triathlete - though she is not new to the sport - in 2022 and has gone into great detail in setting out her costs and her incomings, as well as working out an overall profit for the year.
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“I had a bit more help with some things," she said. "For example, at Kona I probably paid five grand less than I would've done for accommodation as we had support. And the same at St George … so I could have quite easily spent about £10,000 more in costs.
“The good news is I made some money; and what actually feels quite decent money this year, which is nice. To be honest (the profits in 2022) feels like way more of a liveable sum of money and actually feels a bit more sustainable.”
Overall, she made a profit from triathlon of £58,500, though she also has other income from coaching and from a part-time job in the banking sector. But what's really interesting to see is the incomings and outgoings of a pro triathlete rising through the ranks - winning some races - but who does not have a base salary from a team, like cyclists at ProContinental or World Tour level.
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Astle said her overall earnings in 2021 were £32,900 and her costs were about £16,000. However, while those figures may sound small, she still worked part-time as a senior manager for Lloyds Banking Group in London.
Moving on to 2022, her outgoings increased significantly - mainly because she traveled and competed more often post-pandemic. But her earnings, mainly from prize money and related incomings, also grew and put her in profit to a much great degree than in 2021.
Those costs included three month-long training camps - two in the US and one in Spain - as well as a trip to the Worlds in Kona, which she said was more expensive than many of her other racing trips.
Her costs in 2022 included £9,000 on flights, bike servicing of £2,000, bike parts at £3,500, physio and massage was £2,000 while pool and gym costs amounted to £2,000. Astle said she received support on many trips, meaning a big reduction - up to £10,000 - in accommodation, though her total outgoings for the year were still £28,500.
On the other side of the ledger for 2022, her incomings were £87,000. That included £35,000 in prize money, though that was a mix of prize money with the tax deducted at source - the norm for Ironman. Other triathlons leave it to the athlete to look after paying their own taxes from the prize money they earn.
As well as the prize money, she also secured £14,000 in podium bonuses and received £15,500 in sponsorship payments. She also has her own YouTube account, which made just €980 in the year, reflecting the paltry sums made by most YouTubers, podcasters, artists and influencers as the platforms have the sector sewn up at the expense of those who create the content.
She also brought in almost £10,000 from selling old kit and said having suppliers who allowed her keep the kit she used, so she could sell it later, had made a big difference. She also received a PTO bonus of about £8,500. The PTO is the Professional Triathletes Organisation, which is hybrid of a not for profit organisation and a commercial endeavour aimed at ensuring a spread of payments to pro triathletes, even when they finish well down the field in events.
However, she points out she only did one PTO race in 2022 and she believed even if she did two this year her money would noticeably increase, underling the real value, as she sees it, of the organisation.
She has not included income from her coaching business or her work in Lloyds Bank as she wanted to show the income purely from her triathlon career.
