The world’s most important fixture in the calendar year for a cyclist is the Tour de France. All of the world’s greatest professional cyclists battle it out for the opportunity to wear the yellow jersey, and now fans of the sport will get to see the drama of last year’s event unfold with Netflix’s latest sports docuseries Tour de France: Unchained. Coming to Netflix in June 2023, here’s everything we know so far about Tour de France: Unchained.
In a collaboration between Quadbox, and F1: Drive to Survive producer Box to Box Films, Netflix has gone behind the scenes of the 2022 Tour de France for an eight-part docuseries.
With exclusive access to eight of the 22 participating teams in the event, fans will get even more insight into one of the most iconic sporting events of the year. Each episode will have an estimated runtime of 45 minutes. Also, when we consider there are eight episodes and eight teams, it is highly likely that each episode will focus on individual teams taking part.
Wout van, Simon Geschke, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, and Wout van at the 2022 Tour de France – GETTY IMAGES
Dolores Emile, manager of EMEA unscripted & doc series, had the following to say about the series;
“We are very proud to unveil new aspects of the emblematic Tour de France. This is a unique opportunity to dive into the stories of its inspiring characters.”
Yann Le Moënner, directeur général d’A.S.O spoke of how proud they are of the partnership with Netflix
“We are proud of this partnership with Netflix, France Télévisions, and the Tour de France teams, which will offer fans a unique immersion behind the scenes. Through a narrative approach, which is additive to the competition itself, the public will be able to discover how the Tour de France represents the ultimate challenge for the competitors; in particular, in terms of suffering, pushing their limits, and team spirit. This project is part of our overall ambition to make our sport more accessible and meet an even wider audience.”
Mr. Steve Lau (left), Co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Activation Group, and Yann Le Moenner, Chief Executive Officer of Amaury Sport Organization (A.S.O.), with Egan Bernal (middle), Tour de France 2019 champion. (Photo: Business Wire)
Finally, Laurent-Eric Le Lay, sports director at France Télévisions, said;
“As the historic partner and broadcaster of the Tour de France, we are delighted to participate in this project which will allow everyone to experience part of the daily life of champions and teams. It is additive to what we do every year during the race and we believe that it will attract an even larger audience to this beautiful event.”
It has been reported that the series has been produced for a total of €8 million, with each episode costing €1 million to produce. Netflix also reportedly paid €1 million to the parties involved. ASO, the Tour de France organizer, and broadcaster France Televisions both pocketed €250,000 each. The remaining €500,000 was split amongst the eight teams involved in the series earning them €62,000 each.
When is the Netflix release date?
An exact release date has yet to be announced by Netflix, but we expect to learn more about the June 2023 release date soon.
A trailer for the series was released earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress.
The Tour de France Netflix documentary is here! Well, a trailer of the series is, at least. Check out a clip of the action here
(📹 Mobile World Congress) pic.twitter.com/dFXuVchl3p
— Cyclingnews (@Cyclingnewsfeed) March 1, 2023
Which teams will be featured in the docuseries?
It has been reported that we’ll see the following eight teams in action;
- AG2R Citroën Team
- Alpecin-Fenix
- BORA-hansgrohe
- EF Education-EasyPost
- Groupama-FDJ cycling Team
- Ineos Grenadiers
- Team Jumbo-Visma and
- Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl
Will you be watching Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
