2023-05-29 21:29:26
Eight cycling teams opening the doors of their buses and hotels, this gives eight episodes dense and full of suspense. As in the vintage “Columbo” series: we know the end, and the name of the winner, from the start. But it’s the way we arrive at the conclusion that captivates and sticks in front of the screen. “Tour de France, in the heart of the peloton”, which will be available on Netflix from June 8, at 9 a.m., had given itself two missions: to tell the biggest traveling race in the world from the inside, but also, and above all, to capture a new audience, younger and for whom the Tour de France is perhaps only the summer pleasure of parents and grandparents.
And it is successful. Each episode follows one or two protagonists. Not necessarily happy, like the Swiss Stefan Bissegegr, one of the favorites in the time trial of the first event and who fell twice. Or relieved, like the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen and his tears of joy, stage winner two years after nearly dying in a sprint accident at the Tour of Poland.
The second episode is exceptional, during the stifling stage of the cobblestones of the North, where the Jumbo-Visma team almost sinks with the falls of their two leaders Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard. From inside the racing vehicle, the panic and the certainty of having lost the Tour are palpable.
Pinot opens the doors of its intimacy
In a fraction of a second, we see how the Dutch team decides to sacrifice Roglic, to bet everything on Vingegaard and ask Wout van Aert, then yellow jersey, to sacrifice himself to save Vingegaard’s chances in the general. A few days later, the latter’s triumph in the insane stage of the Granon, where he took power, was also experienced from the inside.
Netflix has also bet on Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The latter, although a simple team member on the Tour, opened the doors of his intimacy and let himself be filmed before the race, at home, on his farm in Mélisey (Haute-Saône), with his companion, feeding his goats. A rare opening for him. Like this pretty confession dropped in the middle of an episode. “I am more loved than stronger. Sometimes I wish it were the opposite. »
Only one downside to this series which takes a fresh look at a 120-year-old event: UAE. The team of Tadej Pogacar, outgoing double winner and who will therefore end up losing against Vingegaard after a huge duel, did not want to open up to the cameras. Which necessarily harms the dramaturgy of the story. And if there will be a season 2, shot during the next Tour, UAE has decided to continue to close its doors. Mechanically and stupidly reinforcing a suspicion around its runners.
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