Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has given a resounding thumbs-up to the Netflix series covering the Tour, arguing that the two combine well together to allow fresh insights both into cycling’s flagship event and the riders who take part in it.
During a lengthy recent interview with Belgian newspaper La Dèrniere Heure, Prudhomme discussed the first series of Tour de France:Unchained, first broadcast last June, with a second series currently due for release this summer.
Prudhomme also said he expected the battle for yellow next July to open up beyond the top two 2023 favourites, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), and include both Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), with the main GC narrative mutating from “a two-way duel” to “a race of aces" as a result.
“Evenepoel being in the Tour will hopefully make the peloton prone to panic,” Prudhomme said. “He could upset the applecart.”
“He really impressed me in the last Vuelta a España. I thought he was going to abandon after his jour sans [when Evenepoel cracked on the Tourmalet stage - Ed.] but instead he turned in an amazing performance right up to the last day.”
“Obviously we’d love to see him in the fight for the overall, but whatever happens, he’s sure to put on a great show. We’re very pleased he’s going to be part of the race.”
Although one top-name Belgian will hopefully be setting off fireworks next July on the roads of France, another - Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) - for the first time in six years.
“We always dream of having all the top names in the Tour de France, but there are always riders who, at one point or another, choose different races,” Prudhomme said.
“We’re also in an Olympic year and I imagine he’s got that at the back of his mind. But whatever he chooses, we’ll be delighted to see him back as soon as possible.”
A Race of Aces
Prudhomme was equally upbeat regarding the potential for a four-way GC battle for top spot in the 2024 Tour.
“Four different top names in four different teams is sparking a lot of enthusiasm,” Prudhomme, present in Belgium for a fundraising event for leucemia research organised by the Fonds Ariane association, told La Dernière Heure.
“And of the four, we know that we have two riders who can attack no matter where or when. I’m talking about Pogačar and Evenepoel, capable of opening up a gap wherever they are least expected.”
“It’s nice to witness their audacity, compared to more thoughtful riders like Roglic and Vingegaard.”
As for the Netflix series, “I think the two are totally complementary,” Prudhomme said. “Lots of people have discovered that cycling is a team sport, and speaking personally I’ve discovered what Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is like as a person.
“That complementary nature is important and it allows us to open up to a younger public. The fact we’ve also relaunched the Tour de France Femmes is also part of a quest for new spectators.”
Prudhomme said that this new drive to broaden the fanbase was proving very successful, with a quarter of the fans that came to watch the race from the roadside last year completely new to the Tour. Furthermore, the second biggest age group of Tour de France spectators were now 15 to 24-year-olds, he said and 54% of new roadside fans were women, up 9% percent on previous totals. “That means something,” he concluded.
Regarding new geographical developments in the 2024 Tour, Prudhomme said that this year’s switch to Nice for the last stage “meant that the finish could be really close to the mountains, something every Tour de France director dreams of achieving.”
“It’s allowing us to cross over the summit of the Bonette, the highest road in France, 48 hours before the finish and to include a time trial from Monaco to Nice with 700 metres of vertical climbing on the very last stage. If the final victory is decided there, that would be wonderful.”
