Wellens downplays UAE salaries - ‘People would be surprised by what we earn here’
Tim Wellens has extended his contract with UAE Team Emirates XRG through the end of 2027, a deal that was signed quietly long before the team chose to announce it. At 34, he sounds less like a rider easing toward the exit and more like someone who feels he has landed in the right place at the right time.
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad Tim Wellens points to the small things first. The chance to ride the classics in a Belgian champion's jersey next spring. The unexpected afterglow of a Tour stage win in 2025 changed how people look at him on training rides. And, above all, a sense that 2025 might have been the strongest year of his career, even if it did not come with a pile of minor wins.
That context matters, because the easy outside assumption is that staying alongside Tadej Pogačar must be a financial jackpot. Wellens pushes back on that idea.
"People still think: you sign with UAE, so you must be choosing the money. But people would be surprised by what we earn here," said Wellens. He adds that the image lingers from earlier years, when the team needed big offers to attract riders. Now, he argues, the appeal runs in the other direction. Success, structure, and ambition pull riders in, which changes the market dynamic inside the team.
For Wellens, the bigger point is what money does and does not solve. "For me, money is not that important. It is worth a lot to me to go to a race feeling good about it and being happy within the team. The older I get, the more I realise that." Winning helps, he admits, because good results make everything lighter. But he insists the core atmosphere would hold even without the same run of victories.
He also deflates another myth, the idea that Pogačar's winning machine automatically means lavish bonuses for everyone around him. Gratitude, he says, is real, but it does not necessarily come in the form fans imagine.
He compares it to an earlier experience. "When I rode for Lotto, André Greipel had a bonus system in his contract. When he won, the teammates automatically got extra money. I rode a Tour de France with him once and that was a huge amount of money." Then the twist. "The sad thing was that, after a while, everyone started to see it as normal and forgot what a beautiful gesture it was."
Wellens is clear about where he stands on it now. "Everyone has a contract and knows their role. We are all paid well enough to help. Does the guy who wins then have to reward the rest financially as well? For me, that is not necessary."
The praise that counts is simpler. "If you have done your job well, he will always give you a pat on the back and express his thanks. I think that is worth more than something financial." And, he adds, "In the Tour you do share in the prize money. That is not nothing."
