Cycling paychecks

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ESCONDIDO -- For winning the Amgen Tour of California, Levi Leipheimer earned $13,828. For finishing seventh overall, Lance Armstrong earned $1,030.95. The individual jersey winners -- Jason McCartney for King of the Mountains, Mark Cavendish for the sprinters and Robert Gesink for being best young rider -- each won $5,000. The overall winning team, Astana, won $10,000. Each daily stage winner got $3,253.50.

So these aren’t your typical spoiled multimillionaire athletes. At least not most of them. They also get salaries from their teams, some six-figure deals, some not so much.

-- Diane Pucin