What do you think of when someone mentions the Tour de France? If you are not a cycling aficionado, then probably Jan Ullrich (who took part for the last time in 2005), Team Telekom, Lance Armstrong (who took part for the last time in 2010) and lots of doping scandals. The latter in particular was probably the reason why the legendary cycle race has hardly attracted much public interest in recent years. Athletes drive more than 200 kilometers a day up steep mountains, sometimes in sweltering heat? Oh … with certain stimulating remedies, it’s certainly not that exhausting.
However, a Netflix documentary series now takes a surprising new look at cycling. It’s called “Tour de France – In the main field”, behind it is mostly the same team that produced the popular Formula 1 documentary “Drive To Survive”. And it applies proven technology: the people and the emotions behind the sporting competitions are shown. Swearing team bosses, ambitious high-flyers, athletes who are categorized as “too old” or “too nice” and from now on have to fight for their standing in the team. Suddenly, the faceless straight line (cycling fans may excuse the term) becomes a personal test of people you now know a little bit more about. And so it gets more exciting.
Just like the Drive To Survive template, Tour de France: In the Peloton will also grab those who have little interest in cycling or any sport in general. After all, everyone likes to look behind the scenes. In this case you see above all: much, much suffering. No matter how well trained the men are, how carefully they are massaged by physiotherapists, how regular their diet is – the three weeks of the Tour de France are obviously torture even for the top athletes. Then there are your own demands and the pressure from your own team: only second at the finish line? More reason to curse than to rejoice.
And so you often see a lot of unhappy faces, especially during the briefings of the teams in the coach. Is it the fact that as a racing cyclist you simply have to have a penchant for masochism, the sometimes lamented strict diet before the start or simply the prospect of another endlessly strenuous day in the saddle? All good reasons. But occasionally you just want to hug the whole team when they’re listening to the bosses’ strategic requests with sad eyes. Those bosses who later drive comfortably in the car behind the athletes and mercilessly yell announcements over the radio.
The series has one problem – compared to Formula 1, the teams are significantly larger and they all have complicated names made up of sponsor companies (Alpecin-Fenix, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Quick-Step Alpha vinyl etc. etc.) Tell the teams apart? Almost impossible for laypeople with these names. And there isn’t just one potential stage winner on almost every team. It’s easy to get confused: who was Philipsen and who was Jakobsen? Who Roglič and who Pogačar? Who Jonas, who Jasper? But there’s not much you can do about it, after all, not only 20, but 176 athletes compete against each other here.
What the documentary does in any case: Arouse new respect for the performance of the drivers. And learn to understand their inner drive. What is completely left out: the topic of doping. It is not necessarily missing, and it is probably only fair to focus on the people and their commitment. Perhaps the omission of this topic was also a condition of the organizers to let the film team look behind the scenes. But the fact that not even a marginally annoyed person expressed annoyance at an early morning doping test gives the strange impression that all the scandals never happened. And that’s just not the case.
Netflix has cleverly released the documentary series in terms of timing: The Tour de France 2023 starts this weekend. And anyone who has looked through “Tour de France: In the main field” now knows what to look out for, who is fighting who – and certainly also has a favorite that gets a particularly big thumbs-up.
All eight episodes of “Tour de France: In the Main Draw” are currently available on Netflix.
