Tour de France Prize Money 2019: Purse Payouts and Predictions Triple-Crown Race

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The 2019 Tour de France is almost upon us, and this year's winner of cycling's most prestigious road race will receive a prize of €500,000 (£450,000).

Per the Tour's official website, that will come from a total purse of around €2.3 million (£2 million).

The second race of cycling's Triple Crown in the calendar, the 2019 Tour will begin in Brussels, Belgium, on Saturday, before concluding on the Champs-Elysee in Paris on July 28.

Along the way, the 2,150-mile route will take the peloton through Reims, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse and Nimes, with visits to the Pyrenees and the Alpine mountain ranges:

Four-time Tour winner Chris Froome will not be competing after he suffered a serious crash last month:

Defending champion Geraint Thomas will participate, though, despite suffering a crash of his own in the Tour de Suisse, also in June.

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He's among those looking to capitalise on Froome's absence, and he told BBC 5 Live's Bespoke podcast (h/t BBC Sport's Tom Fordyce) he is "super-motivated and pushing to try to win it again."

The Welshman added:

"I don't feel pressure to prove that my win wasn't a fluke, or whatever negative angle people want to take from it.

"It's actually less pressure. If a rider hasn't quite fulfilled their potential in Grand Tours they might be too eager, to attack too soon or too much, to get too emotional, but I think I can be more chilled, more calculated."

One rider looking for their first Tour de France victory will be Movistar's Nairo Quintana.

The Colombian won the 2014 Giro d'Italia and the 2016 Vuelta a Espana, but the Tour has eluded him thus far. He finished second in 2013 and 2015, and third in 2016.

He was runner-up in Paris-Nice earlier this year, and he also won Stage 6 of the Tour of Colombia on home soil.

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Per The Independent's Lawrence Ostlere, this year's Tour has been dubbed "the highest race in history" because of the number of mountain stages the riders will face.

There will be five summit finishes, of which three will be more than two kilometres above sea level, and the peloton will face more Category 2 and 3 climbs than last year.

As a climbing specialist—who won the polka dot jersey in 2013—Quintana should be well-suited to this year's race.

Thomas will provide some tough opposition for the yellow jersey following last year's win, but with Froome absent, the 29-year-old has an excellent chance of completing the Triple Crown set.

Prediction: Nairo Quintana