Tour de France: Unchained

Great show, as good as Formula 1: Drive to Survive. But they left this out...

🚴 A CLASS ACT Tour de France, Stage 18 of 21 Lourdes to Hautacam (143km)

In Spandelles, Pogacar went wide and fell. By the time he got back on, Vingegaard - who had been wearing the yellow jersey since Stage 11 - had about 200m of daylight. Then an incredible gentlemanly act happened: when he realized his rival had fallen, Vingegaard refused to pull away. Instead, the yellow jersey on the line, he *waited* for the bruised Pogacar. When he caught up, Pogacar reached for Vingegaard's hand and the two competitors bumped hands. Sportscaster Phil Liggett commented, "In my 50 years in Tour de France, I have not seen anything like this."

At 5km, Vingegaard and Pogacar caught up with stage leader Van Aert (green jersey). Up for grabs were not only the stage win and yellow jersey but also green and polka dot points.

At 4.5km, Pogacar dropped! His green jersey points safe, Van Aert eventually left his team captain Vingegaard alone in front to win the stage. Vingegaard consolidated his supremacy by extending his lead over Pogacar by 1 minute 4 seconds to 3:26.

Three years ago, at 18 years old, Vingegaard was unknown, shoveling ice at a fish plant. This day, he is the leader at Le Tour, at the top of the Pyrenees. He might as well be at the top of the world.

NOTE: You can watch the above story on Peacock at the 30:34 mark of Stage 18 (each stage's highlights are still there as of June 2023).

After the succes of Drive to Survive, Netflix decided to create a similar series about the worlds biggest bike race: Le Tour de France.

Just like Drive to Survive, Tour de France, au coeur du peleton (In the heart of the peleton) relies heavily on great images and exciting footage and music and supposed conflicts between riders and teams. The creators also tried to bring across the horrific effort the riders have to make each day. The just in time finish of Fabio Jakobsen was a good addition but in the end, eight episodes with a lot of other stories is a bit short for this.

In future years In hope they will extend the series to 10 episodes or more and that more teams will participate. I also hope they will not make the same mistake as the creators of with Drive to Survive did by focusing to much on conflicts and pulling comments out of context.

I did enjoy this first season though and rate it 7/10 plus one point extra for encouraging the makers to make another season.

Whoever directed this documentary, is genius!!!!

I will say a couple of things, even though I'm not a pro cyclist, but this will want to make you get involved with cycling!!!! BELIEVE!!!!

Point 2, like any other sport, you have to put in the hard work and push HARD! Even though I have my favourite cyclist, I have the utmost admiration for these Le Tour professionals going head to head in the cycling equivalent of Mike Tyson.

I'm just a recent bike rider inspired by this surge of energy documentary!

Once you watch this, you'd be hooked and thoroughly inspired to ride your bike!!

Great documentary by #netflix.

For those, like me, who have never followed the TDF, or indeed really cares much for sport at all - this was an incredibly exhilarating series. The people and their inter-dynamics is practically Shakespearean, and the characters' arcs are as dramatic as any Oscar-worthy film. If you love documentary that is gripping and wildly engaging - dive in. I can't wait to watch the TDF in earnest this year and hope the series returns. I'm also pretty jazzed about the women's competition that follows immediately afterwards. Completely inspiring, I'm fully clipped in. My only criticism is I wish it was maybe two more episodes longer, I would have loved to get to know a few more riders and teams.

Netflix has done to the Tour de France what they did to Formula One racing. This show shows what it's like to be on the ground with some of the best bike racers in the world. Focussing on the best teams in the race, this series shows the rivalry, the challenges, and the victories achieved by both individuals and teams as they go through the gruelling stages of the race. Beautifully shot, this series shows just how epic and beautiful this race is, and that's saying a lot coming from someone who doesn't even own a road bike! (To be honest, I'm an avid mountain biker so it's certainly a related sport). I would 100% watch another season of this show.