(Paris) Riders who go to the end of themselves, a peloton that advances like fury, sweat and tears: after Formula 1, Netflix is tackling the Tour de France with the ambition of returning ” sexy the galley slaves” of cycling.
Filmed during the Grande Boucle 2022, the docu-series, baptized Tour de France: In the heart of the Pelotonreleased on June 8, and recounts over eight episodes the conquest of the yellow jersey, the battle of sprinters, team strategy, pieces of bravery and the incredible fervor that surrounds the greatest bicycle race in the world.
The series uses the same recipes that made the success of drive to survive on F1, focusing on several outstanding characters. Like the Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, who was close to death in a terrible accident in 2020 and whom we accompany in his return to light, when he wins a stage or when he goes to dig deep within himself to get in on time on a mountain stage.
“There is the magic of the Tour, but above all we are in a sport where there are great stories and characters who carry universal themes”, underlines Yann Le Bourbouac’h, one of the producers of the series, in an interview with AFP.
He quotes Jakobsen, the French Julian Alaphilippe, who appears in an episode where he learns of his non-selection for the Tour, but also Julien Jurdié. Touching with sincerity, the sporting director of AG2R-Citroën chokes with emotion during the stage victory of his rider Bob Jungels, shows off his tattoos to the glory of cycling and cries in front of the camera when he talks about his father gone.
Doors wide open
“I hope that with the gallery of characters that we have, we will be able to seduce my generation and the older ones. But also that young people will end up finding them a little sexy, these galley slaves”, underlines Yann Bourbouac’h, a big fan of cycling and an admirer of these “titans”.
To allow the Netflix teams to tell these destinies and the race from the inside, the organizers have “opened the doors wide”, underlines Julien Goupil, media and partnerships director at Amaury Sport Organization (ASO).
“It’s a long-term project, the first contacts date from 2018,” he said. It was we who took the initiative with the aim of reaching the widest possible audience. Not necessarily to rejuvenate the audience, but to broaden it. And we are very happy with the result. »
The eight participating teams – who received a little money in passing – played the game, without any right to look at the final result. Including before the race to allow Netflix cameras to follow the athletes in their preparation or in their private lives.
We can notably see Geraint Thomas wondering about his post-career with his wife while gazing at his son in a kindergarten. And Thibaut Pinot feed his goats with his companion on his farm in Mélisey, in Haute-Saône.
“Enormous means”
“They really put in enormous resources. They came to see me for an internship in Tenerife, in the south of France, in the Dauphiné and at my place in Brittany. All that even before the Tour, ”said David Gaudu to AFP, to whom the series devotes an episode to tell of his fight for the podium.
Individual destinies intertwine with the collective work. We board the sports directors’ cars and the buses to attend the pre-race briefings. We sit at the corner of the massage table to listen to the confidences of runners broken by a day in the mountains. We closely follow Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma who panic on the cobblestone stage before cracking Tadej Pogacar in the Granon odyssey. We discover the supersonic descents and the acrobatic pee breaks of Tom Pidcock.
The images are mixed with extracts from the race and accompanied by comments from Alexandre Pasteur, the voice of the Tour on France Télévisions.
The result is spectacular, with one downside, in addition to the possible weariness of viewers – after F1, Netflix has already declined the concept in several sports: the absence of the UAE team from Pogacar, who did not want to participate. And that should not change for season 2, already in preparation.