User Reviews

If you're a big fan of cycling and already seen the Tour de France on television, you're definitely going to enjoy the behind the scenes of teams like Jumbo, Quick Step and Alpecin explaining their tactics. If you've never watched a race like this before, it might be a bit hard to understand how it all works with the different jerseys and all that. They don't explain that quite well imo. I'm a bit disappointed about the fact that they kept saying winning a stage in Tour de France is huge and one big dream, but I think they only showed 8 or 9 stage winners throughout the whole series. There were definitely more. For example they skipped the 3rd stage with Groenewegen winning it. They also skipped Clarke winning the cobblestone stage because they rather focused on Jumbo. Pedersen, Matthews, Houle... Those riders also deserved some credit. They also only focused on 2 sprinters, Jakobsen and Philipsen when there were at least 5 top sprinters in the tour (Ewan, Groenewegen, Pedersen, Matthews...). Most of them won a stage in 2022. There's probably a few teams that didn't want to be included in this series, but that doesn't mean that you have to not show their victories. Overall a great series. Hopefully there will be a TDF 2024 with many highlights of Mathieu Van Der Poel in a positive way and more focus on other stage winners.

I thought that the series was very interesting, and it was fun to go through all of the same feeling you've went when you watched the Tour de France in 2022. I thought that it was very well-made:)) There are however two specific things that they left out which was quite a shame: 1. Magnus Cort's mountain joursey - even though it's "just a mountain jersey" it was still a speciel moment for him, to win it in front of his home croud.

2. Pogacars crash - It was quite weird and I don't understand how they could leave such an important moment out. It really showed true sportsmanship between the rivals, when Vingegård waited for him!!

There's a whole bunch of weird filmmaking decisions that I can't wrap my head around. On the one hand they explain the most mundane things like what a sprinter does. And on the other hand they completely ignore to explain concepts like satelite riders, echelons, overtraining, different body types/specialties, etc. They hardly ever spend time explaining stage profiles and what tactical decisions teams make or could make and why. I think that for newcomers it's all just a bit confusing and lacks depth, and this series is clearly made to promote cycling to a new audience. In my opinion this also makes it harder to empathise with the riders on certain occasions because it's not made clear why they are feeling the way they do about the race.

Furthermore, I am not sure why they decided to cram all of this into eight episodes. Some episodes felt really rushed. Especially the last episode which felt like a speedrun of the four last stages with absolutely no depth, leaving out Pogacar's crash for example. They also followed Borah, who had a disappointing tour but still ended fifth with Vlasov and were fighting for the stage wins, though they never got a good result. There's definitely a story there, but we got like 30 seconds of screentime for Borah in the entire eight episodes. They didn't cover Magnus Cort at all and skipped over a victory of Wout Van Aert. The fact that UAE refused to work with Netflix here is also a massive bummer for the overall production.

It's certainly not all bad. The Tour de France of 2022 was one of the best bike races in the history of bike racing and absolutely carries this series. They also deliver some phenomenal stories with the victory of Bob Jungels and Tom Pidcock. They are very good at building tension and focussing on the emotional side of bike racing. On top of that I enjoyed the fact that they didn't shy away from combining French and English as the two main languages for this series. I just wish they wouldn't have forced the Belgian and Dutch team leaders to speak (broken) English.

An enjoyable time if you want to get into the mood for the next Tour or just relive the one from last year. But a flawed series with a lot of missed opportunities.

I suppose that as a fan of pro cycling from the age of twelve, this Netflix documentary series could only ever disappoint. Why? Well, pro cycling is perhaps one of the easiest sports to explain on a strictly rule-based level, but it's perhaps one of the most difficult sports to understand without experiencing it continually over many races and many seasons. As is so well explained in this series, it's a sport of extreme attrition while also being a highly tactical game; something you don't just get by watching a single stage in a Grand Tour or a Spring Classic.

So, the creators of this series had their work cut out for them. They had to educate while also managing to entertain. I suppose they found that task too great a challenge as they failed miserably at educating. Does it then absolve them that they know how to entertain?

For me, it might have had they been honest in the way they'd chosen to construct their narrative threads. They were not. As an example I can't forgive is the way they set up the team EF Education, rightly, as an underdog in need of UCI points, but then chose to completely ignore reality in favor of a good story. You see, stage 12 ended on the legendary Alpe d´Huez - a mountain so occupied by people during the stage it could be claimed to be more populated than certain European capitals, so of course such a stage has to be front and center. And so, to set the scene we're told EF Education has had a bad Tour up to that point; that this is the chance to turn it around. The young and talented Neilson Powless, who has proven to be anything but powerless, is set up as the man to save EF. Now, while that's all very entertaining and sets up a battle between Powless and later winner of the Stage, Tom Pidcock, it's nonetheless utter nonsense as two stages earlier Magnus Cort, an unsung hero also of EF Education, had won stage 10. We see one clip of Cort... in the bus, in the background. And Jonathan Vaughters, general manager of EF Education, even mentions that it's been a good Tour as Cort won and in the process he contradicts himself and this documentary.

There are multiple examples like that and of editorial choices to steal shots from a mountain stage where fatigue is obvious and then splice it into another, earlier stage to construct a conflict and thusly drama.

So, my overall point is that the Tour does not need this kind of dishonesty - it's abundant with drama. It's one of the most suspenseful events on the sports calendar and it's widely believed that 2022 was a new high point. Had the 2022 edition been a wine it would be invaluable. So why cheat? Why rob sporting heroes of their achievements by editing them out? I'll let others answer that and just conclude that if you're already a bit of connoisseur, then this is most likely not for you. And if you're considering watching this series and haven't any real knowledge of pro cycling and the Tour de France, then by all means enjoy it but be aware that reality is much wilder and more dramatic than this soap-operatic endeavor.

Great series that covered some great moments of the Tour. However, despite covering some of the most crucial deciding points, I felt a hollow emptiness from Pogacar and the UAE team's absence. Further, some important moments such as Vingegaard's gesture of waiting for Tadej Pogacar and Magnus Court's success in Denmark were left out. It is clear and obvious this was a French production, as French riders were in focus. Including interviews and tactics from the UAE team would have made a substantial positive difference. Unfortunately they would not cooperate with Netflix, which was such a shame. Anyhow, I cannot wait for next season of this.

I must say that my view of this documentary may have been compromised by my way too high expectations. As a long time fan of the Tour de France, who followed this rendition of the tour very closely, i must say that many of these tension points constructed through out the stages simply are too exaggerated. An example is the alp d'huez stage, where it seemed at all the weight of the EF team was put upon the shoulders of Powless, even though the stage wasn't really close at all, as Pidcock showed pure dominance on the ascent. EF also already got a win some days earlier, which means that their tour had already been saved. This is of course just one example, as there are many more of the same things going on in each episode. This false dramy kind of seems tacky for me, as i really don't believe it was nescecary. I also think that the inclusion of too much drama came at a cost of leaving other perhaps greater things out of the picture.

Even though it might seem like i didn't enjoy the documentary, given the critisicm above, i did actually enjoy the watch. It still makes me reminisce the emotions of the tour, while also including great behind the scene footage, which makes the riders and staff seem much more human than they may appear on the bike.

Even though the documentary has its flaws, my recommendation would still be that you should watch it, as it still is a montage of great tour moments mixed with some interesting behind the scene footage.

As a liftetime hardcore cycling fan I really want this series to be successful. The show explain some key elements of pro cycling to fans that are new to the sport or don't know the sport at all. One good example here is from when Jumbo Visma isolated Pog on stage 11.

I was postivily suprised by the show referencing to other races and the World Tour relegation battle, which I feared they would not do.

However, it has some major flaws. First of all the dubbed parts to English from french and other languages are horrible. I had to watch the entire episode 4 without sound because of all the dubbing. They should have just used original language with subtitles.

Then there is the problem that too much is left out. The series are not following even half of the teams including UAE Team Emirates - the team of the best rider in the world Tadej Pogacar.

They have also left out many iconic moments from the 2022 TDF, like Cort in Polka, Pog crash, G riding a TT with rainjacket etc + a lot of dramatic fights for stage wins.

As a cycling fan I would also like to see even more tactical discussions and decisions between coaches, DS and riders before and during stages. The producers showed us some of this to a certian extent, but there are still potential for more.

I am very supportive of this being a "TDF for dummies" documentary. However, everything just seems to be done half hearted when so much is left out, despite some postive inclusions. Overall the series has a lot of flaws, but shows good potential despite being destroyed by silly dubbing.

Good show, however they left out WAY too many defining moments.

Easy to see it is a french show! Too litlle about the first 3 stages. Nothing included about the polakadot jersey, EF´s hunt for a win is not followed up, and they completly left out when Jonas waited for Poga after he crashed on the descent, easily one of the most talked about moments of the 2022 tour. Also would have been nice to see the winners of each stage as the show goes on. 2 epsiode more would have been nice. Beautyful pictures as always when watching the Tour.

But included two episodes about irelevant french teams and Pinot and Godu.. :D.

This show could have been so much better with a bit more objectivity and international focus.