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.
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.