Netflix brings on the Tour de France big time

Our buycycle Review for Tour de France: Unchained

That we at buycycle are huge bike fans and film fans should have become clear after our article about the best bike movies. So it's logical that our hearts beat faster when Netflix releases a six-part documentary series about the Tour de France 2022. It's even more logical that we binge-watch it for you and prepare a proper blogpost on it. So here's our review of Tour de France: Unchained!

This is not the first Netflix documentary on the subject of cycling. With Icarus, the great streamer already presented an impressive piece of work on doping in professional cycling in 2017, which even won the Oscar for Best Documentary. And projects like Drive to Survive and Ball Point also get to the bottom of other (extreme) sports captivatingly. Netflix knows how to do sports. Netflix's knowledge of cycling is also proven with Unchained.

This is not to say that these series' very dramatic Hollywood style isn't occasionally annoying. The Netflix recipe for documentaries is and remains the same, and it applies here as well: fast-paced cuts, shots of the athlete's defeats in slow motion and with dark vignettes, meaningful off-camera commentary and interviews in doomsday settings against dark backgrounds and sparse soft lighting.

The documentary makes good use of the thrill and the spectacular. Drastic statements and breakneck images are thrown at us so often within the same episode that one almost suspects a bug on one's laptop. For example, Marc Madiot, former professional cyclist and head of the Groupama-FDJ team, is deadly serious when stating:

Suffering is the key and the heart of cycling.

We hear that a dozen times and see it at least as often.

From Fabio Jakobsen's scary crash at the 2020 Tour de Pologne that nearly took his life to a bag of food slamming into Thibaut Pinot's face at full speed to contorted faces on the torturous climbs in the French Alps, it's painful. This is not just for the athletes but also for the spectators. We suffer with them physically. So, the series is not necessarily something for the faint of heart, but it's exciting and thrilling for everyone else.  

This is precisely why Unchained is a successful production, despite appropriate criticism regarding its form and style. A wide variety of actors, most notably the brilliant ex-athlete Steve Chainel, offer cleverly integrated insights into the competition's rules, principles and intricacies. Anyone who has had no idea about cycling until now will be elegantly taken by the hand here, educated just enough, and enthralled completely. Those who have never missed a live broadcast of the grands tours will nevertheless be enriched and challenged, and get well-known, sometimes inert TV material re-presented in a cinema-worthy thriller format.

Anyone who didn't know the Tour de France yet will love it after this series. Or fear it. Or both.

But anyone looking for technical insights into the sport or journalistic precision is in the wrong place here. Unchained has an entirely different goal. It is less concerned with a detailed reappraisal of a competition steeped in tradition and more with entertainment and attracting attention. The series fulfills this goal quite brilliantly. It provides professional cycling with new audiences and fans, addresses the broad masses, and successfully captures their interest. In other words, Thanks to Netflix's six-million-euro series, cycling has a good chance of leaping into the mainstream.

Not only thanks to the breathtaking depiction of the individual stages and maneuvers, but also by giving the sport a human, almost family-sentimental face. The camera crews follow eight of the 22 professional teams throughout the tour and accompany their highs and lows, suffering and joy. However, viewers also get private glimpses into the lives of some athletes. We see Wout von Aert with his young daughter at the dinner table, Thibaut Pinot on his home farm feeding his goats, and virtually read the lovingly teasing messages from Geraint Thomas' wife. And there is a lot of crying.

There is disappointment over lost stages, happiness, and emotion when yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard gives his teammate Wout the last stage victory. And Julien Jurdie, the usually choleric leader of the French AG2R-Citroën team, tearfully recounts the death of his parents on camera.

This may seem overly dramatic and emotional, but it works surprisingly well. Above all, beyond these intimate moments, it becomes clear what kind of team spirit and passion, almost bordering on obsession, unites and drives these athletes. How indispensable tactical calculation is in cycling also becomes crystal clear. Or at least the existence of those tactics. Explaining them, or even just outlining them, is something the teams didn't want to do or that Netflix doesn't think we are capable of grasping. And that's a bit of a shame.

This failure to explain things in depth leads us to the last central point of criticism. The gripping storytelling, which jumps back and forth between teams, athletes, and stages, gives us impressive and intense insights into the three most important weeks of the cycling season. But there are a few holes in this mesh of interviews, snapshots, and stunning Tour footage—one big hole called Pogačar and a few smaller ones called doping, camaraderie, or nutritional challenges.

Tadej Pogačar, a two-time Tour de France winner, was also a hot favorite for the yellow jersey in 2022. His team, UAE Emirates, decided against participating in the series. It's not that Pogačar was left out of the series entirely. On the contrary, he plays a central role, especially in the last episodes. That of the anti-hero. That of an athlete who uses the slightest chance to "destroy" his opponents, that of the reckless victory machine. This depiction works great for storytelling purposes, but from an athlete's point of view, the producers have made it a bit too easy for themselves here.

It's perhaps logical from the production team's point of view that one of the most iconic and impressive moments of the last Tour de France didn't make it onto Netflix: the handshake between Vingegaard and Pogačar after the Slovenian crashed in stage 18 and Vingegaard waited for his rival. Nairo Quintana's doping scandal is also left out completely, as are the difficult conditions the athletes are subject to, from dietary restrictions to endless training and "living like a monk," as rider Nelson Powell calls it.

But a second season of the series at the 2023 Tour de France is already in planning, so maybe the streamer will compensate for one or two points of criticism. Hopefully, however, the new season will remain equally exciting and impressive. In any case, we're looking forward to it—to the new Tour de France, the new season, and the next film review.

If you're so hooked on race cycling now that you can hardly wait to jump on your road bike, it might be worth looking at buycycle.com. Here, you will find over 14,000 road, gravel and mountain bikes. Your next dream bike is already waiting for you. For questions about the world of bikes, the blog and our team are here to help. Until then, we wish you Happy binging, browsing, and cycling!