# US Postal rider salaries, 2002-2004



## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

see pic, via the twitter

https://twitter.com/thebikeshow/status/413786159538790400/photo/1


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## 55x11 (Apr 24, 2006)

Creakyknees said:


> see pic, via the twitter
> 
> https://twitter.com/thebikeshow/status/413786159538790400/photo/1


Hmm... Interesting. Not so surprised at LA and Heras salary.
But confused about Boonen (Ok, so he was a youngster back then) but just $30K?!
Why is Hincapie so high? 450K? Is this mostly because of his classics expectations, or being crucial to LA in TdF?
Why was Eki so low? I thought he was as crucial to LA as Hincapie?
Van De Velde seems way too high for those years. But Zabriskie was under-paid.


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## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

55x11 said:


> Why was Eki so low?


because he grew up in a communist country, he has no idea how to negotiate or how the free market works ... oops wrong forum


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## dnice (Jul 12, 2012)

good find. had no idea boonen even rode for USPS. i bet not much has changed from those days. froome/conti/nibali prolly stil well 4 to 5 times above their next highest paid teammates, with the domestiques (bar a rare few) just paying bills.


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## Mootsie (Feb 4, 2004)

Dylan Casey 100K? Robbie Ventura's salary dropped every year. LOL.


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## davidka (Dec 12, 2001)

Definitely some surprises there. CVV for one, didn't think he was that valuable to USPS. A significant amount of deferred compensation/bonus (TdF team for instance) must be assumed as well.


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## runabike (Jun 18, 2013)

Boonen isn't a surprise at all. This was his first big team as a 21 year old neo-pro. He was brought on to help Hincapie in the classics and pulled an absolute stunner at Paris-Roubaix. That's why he's not on the roster for the next year. He jumped ship in a big way for a big paycheck and a team built around him. PR was his coming out party and he had no big results like that prior so certainly wouldn't have a big salary.


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## davidka (Dec 12, 2001)

Boonen was known to be a top prospect. I recall reading that Bruyneel had been working with him prior to bringing him up. It's now easy to see why he left so readily, along with his opportunity to be mentored by Museeuw.


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

So postal kept paying riders who left the team?


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