‘Tour de France, in the heart of the peloton’ on Netflix: why the series is worth a detour

Eight cycling teams open the doors of their buses and hotels, making eight episodes dense and full of suspense. As in the old Colombo series: we know the end and the name of the winner from the very beginning. But it’s the way we come to a conclusion that grabs and sticks to the screen. The Tour de France, in the heart of the peloton, which will be available on Netflix from June 8 at 9 am, has two missions: to tell about the world’s biggest traveling race from the inside, but also and above all to attract a new audience, younger and for whom the Tour de France is perhaps only the summer pleasure of parents and grandparents.

And it’s successful. Each episode follows one or two main characters. Not necessarily happy, like the Swiss Stefan Bisegre, one of the favorites in the first stage time trial and a two-time loser. Or with relief, like Dutchman Fabio Jacobsen and his tears of joy, stage winner two years later after nearly dying in a sprint crash at the Tour of Poland.

The second episode is exceptional, during the choke stage of the cobblestones of the North, where the Jumbo-Visma team almost drowns due to the falls of their two leaders, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard. From within the racing car, there is panic and certainty that he has lost the Tour.

Pino opens the doors of his intimacy

In a fraction of a second, we see the Dutch team decide to sacrifice Roglic, bet everything on Wingegaard and ask Wout van Aert, then still in the yellow jersey, to sacrifice himself to keep Wingegaard’s chances at the general. A few days later, the triumph of the latter at the crazy stage of Granon, where he took power, was also experienced from the inside.

Netflix also bet on Thibault Pino (Groupama-FDJ). The latter, although a mere member of the team on the Tour, opened the doors of his intimacy and allowed himself to be photographed before the race, at home, on his farm in Melise (Haut-Sauna), with his companion feeding his goats. A rare discovery for him. What a beautiful confession dropped in the middle of an episode. “I am loved more than more. Sometimes I wish it was the other way around. »

The only downside to this series, which is a fresh take on an event 120 years ago: the UAE. The team of Tadej Pogacar, the outgoing two-time winner and therefore the loser to Vingegor after a huge duel, didn’t want to come out in front of the cameras. Which necessarily harms the dramaturgy of the story. And if there is a season 2 filmed during the next tour, the UAE has decided to keep closing its doors. Mechanically and stupidly increasing the suspicion around their runners.