Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Cycling News
Cycling News
Sport
Stephen Farrand

Tour de France Netflix series release time confirmed as details of first episodes emerge

JumboVisma teams Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard C celebrates his overall victory with the yellow jersey next to UAE Team Emirates teams Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar L placing overall second place and Ineos Grenadiers teams British rider Geraint Thomas R taking overall third place on the podium after the 21st and final stage of the 109th edition of the Tour de France cycling race 1156 km between La Defense Arena in Nanterre outside Paris and the ChampsElysees in Paris France on July 24 2022 Photo by Thomas SAMSON AFP Photo by THOMAS SAMSONAFP via Getty Images

The highly anticipated Tour de France Netflix series was released at midnight Pacific Time on Wednesday and is available in 190 territories as part of a major global release.

It air from midnight PT on the US west coast, which is 8:00 Thursday morning UK time, 17:00 AEST in Sydney Australia and 03:00 EDT on the US east coast.

Called ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ and ‘Tour de France: Au cœur du peloton' in French, the series consists of eight episodes, all released at the same time on Thursday. Each episode focuses on decisive moments of the 2022 Tour de France, capturing the drama, suffering and emotions of their race. 

AG2R Citroën Team, Alpecin-Fenix, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ cycling Team, Ineos Grenadiers, BORA-hansgrohe, Team Jumbo-Visma and Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl all agreed to part of the Netflix series, allowing camera crews onto their team buses and in their hotel rooms last July. 

Each episode tells the story of the race and the inside story of the leading riders from the eight teams. 

Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates opted not to be involved due to privacy and sponsor concerns but the Slovenian and the rest of the Tour de France peloton are included in the episodes because of the extensive use of television footage and on-bike video images.

Television commentators such as France’s Steve Chainel, Britain’s David Millar and Orla Chennaoui of Eurosport/GCN help explain the unwritten rules of professional cycling and the Tour de France, while the riders, their families and team staff and team managers all feature to complete the narrative of each moment.

A second series is expected to be filmed during this year’s Tour de France.  

Tour de France: Unchained was made by Quadbox - a joint venture between Quad and Box to Box Films who created the hugely popular ‘Drive to Survive' Formula 1 Series that helped boost interest in motor racing, especially in the USA. The Tour de France organisers and the team involved hope ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ can create similar interest in professional cycling just a few weeks before this year’s race. 

Netflix funded the reported production costs of €8 million to make the series. Tour de France organiser ASO and host broadcaster France Televisions both netted €250,000 each. The eight teams shared the remaining €500,000, giving each team €62,000 ($67,000).

Netflix released the official trailer last week after a teaser video was shown in March. 

"The Tour de France is very simple. It is a bike race, every day, over 21 stages," Chainel explained before Groupama-FDJ team manager Marc Madiot added: “If you can go further in suffering and sacrifice, you may have a chance… to win,” as the clock to the start of a stage begins.    

The eight episodes start with the emotions of the Grande Depart in Denmark and the contrast in emotions for Yves Lampaert of QuickStep won won the rain-soaked opening time trial and EF Education-EasyPost time trialist Stefan Bissegger who crashed twice. It then tells the story of Fabio Jakobsen's comeback story after his 2020 Tour de Pologne crash and his stage 2 sprint win.    

Episode 2 focuses on the cobbles on stage 5 and the drama and panic when Jonas Vingegaard needed multiple bike changes.

“We had discussed what we would do in the event of a flat tyre and a crash. But I never thought about a broken chain. What was I supposed to do then?” Vingegaard admits during the episode.  

Other episodes focus on the home nation pressures on Groupama-FDJ and AG2R-Citroën to win stages, the showdown between Vingegaard, Roglic and Pogacar on stage  11 to the Col du Grandon. 

Others highlight Tom Pidcock's victory on the Alpe d'Huez stage and his thrilling descent of the Galibier and how Neilson Powless went close to winning a stage for EF Education-EasyPost several times.

The final episodes focus on the final week of racing as Vingegaard defends the yellow jersey and fights off Pogacar, David Gaudu's fight to finish fourth overall and the survival of the sprinters.   

Cyclingnews will have a first look and review of all the eight episodes.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.