Tour de France: Unchained (2023-2025)

Au Coeur du Peloton is a slick, quintessential Netflix production full of heroism, thrills, team spirit, winners and losers. With cameras on the cycling helmet we are in the peloton. The area surrounding the course is immersed in colorful paint with aerial shots of bright patterns and lines in the French landscape. That much is clear: the design is overwhelming.

For the connoisseur and enthusiast, Au Coeur du Peloton offers little new. The 8-part series remains on the surface and is painted with a coarse brush. The family private glimpse is often not much more than an ultra-short introduction to the cyclist's girlfriend. Why not also highlight some small stories of unknown drivers?

Au Coeur du Peloton looks like a restlessly edited commercial from the Tour organization itself. The team leaders/journalists also use empty words or superfluous interpretations in the interviews. At its best, Au Coeur du Peloton is captivating, but ultimately oubliable. And yet... Still, after seeing Au Coeur du Peloton, I am very excited to follow the Tour 2023 again.

Translated from Dutch · View original

I am super excited about this documentary, which is completely in line with how fascinated I became by cycling. As a child of eight I saw Hennie Kuiper win on Alpe d'Huez with hollow eyes and I was immediately captivated by this intensely tough sport, which is pre-eminently the sport of stories, drama, heroism, sensation. Exactly what you see in this documentary and I love it! Yes, there are also real cycling enthusiasts who look at the race that way.
I have been a fan of the race for 46 years now; I follow the Giro, Vuelta, classics and so on, but the Tour makes my heart beat faster every year. Then I wake up in the morning with butterflies in my stomach when there is a tough mountain stage on the program or a stage for the sprinters, which can also be so delicious. The magic of this traveling circus in which drivers suffer and go to the extreme, I think it's crazy every year and for me that magic is well put down here.
I think it's nice that the documentary is made slick. I have seen many a cycling documentary that I struggle to get through because it is too dry and bare for me. I love cycling very much, but also the crazy and sensational stories that are inextricably linked to cycling, but especially to the Tour. That's why 5 stars for me, although for some that must be swearing in church

Translated from Dutch · View original