tour de france netflix date

‘Tour de France: Unchained’ Renewed For Season 2: Coming to Netflix in 2024

Picture: Netflix

One of the many new Netflix sports docu-series to debut in 2023 has been handed a season 2 order. Tour de France: Unchained will return for a second season in 2024. 

Debuting on Netflix for the first time in early June 2023, Tour de France: Unchained gives you unparalleled access to behind-the-scenes of the world’s most famous cycling race. The documentary series was released in French audio with a range of subtitle and dub options, including English.

Eight episodes dropped globally (after airing on France Télévisions) on June 9th. The series featured  in the global non-English TV top 10 for a single week, picking up 8.2 million hours watched globally between June 11th and 18th.

The renewal news comes via a Tweet by Netflix France . The Tour de France followed up Netflix France’s announcement in an additional Tweet, saying :

“See you next year @NetflixFR! A series made possible thanks to @francetv and the cycling teams!”

Season 2 will follow the forthcoming 2023 Tour de France, scheduled to begin at the end of July 2023 . The event takes place over 21 stages beginning in Northern Spain and concluding in Paris; it’s been confirmed 22 teams will be competing for the grand prize.

The renewal of Tour de France: Unchained means that we’ll see the return of numerous sporting documentaries in 2023. Full Swing , Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and Break Point have all been handed renewal orders, each set to return in 2024. All of the aforementioned shows (including Unchained) are produced by the British outfit Box to Box Films.

Those returning series are in addition to other various sports documentaries Netflix currently has in the works for other sports like soccer, the NFL, rugby, and WWE.

Are you glad to hear that Tour de France: Unchained is returning for a second season? Let us know in the comments.

Founder of What's on Netflix, Kasey has been tracking the comings and goings of the Netflix library for over a decade. Covering everything from new movies, series and games from around the world, Kasey is in charge of covering breaking news, covering all the new additions now available on Netflix and what's coming next.

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Everything you need to know about the Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained

The new eight-part series is available to stream now

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What is it?

What's it like, who's involved.

• What do we know about it?

When will it be released?

How much did it cost, will there be a second season, have netflix produced tour de france documentaries before.

This June, streaming platform Netflix will release a first-of-its-kind documentary series about the Tour de France . It will come out on 8 June at 08:00 in the UK. This equates to 03:00 US east coast time, midnight on the US west coast, and 17:00 in Sydney, Australia. 

Titled 'Tour de France: Unchained', or 'Tour de France: Au cœur du peloton' ('Inside the peloton') in French, here's everything you need to know about it. 

Tour de France: Unchained is a new Netflix documentary series that tells the story of the 2022 Tour de France. 

The news of its production came in March 2022, with camera crews then embedding within seven teams at the race. Created as part of a joint venture between Quadbox and Box to Box Films, the makers of F1: Drive to Survive, the series offers exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the highs and lows of the Tour de France. France Télévisions also contributed to the production.

The series consists of eight episodes, each lasting around 40 minutes. Below is a chart of the episode titles, and which teams they are focused on. 

Our very own Adam Becket has already reviewed it , concluding: "It's a thrilling watch for both those who know cycling, and those who are new to the sport. It might prove too general for the committed fan, but there is something for everyone."

"There are flaws, with the absence of Pogačar the biggest, and it appearing surface level at times," he writes. "However, professional cycling is a confusing sport, and  Unchained  does an excellent job of breaking down the barriers to entry to show just how enthralling it is."

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It was originally understood that eight teams had given exclusive access to Netflix camera crews for the series. These included: AG2R Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

Netflix’s Tour de France: Unchained landing page now says that only seven teams are involved, with Bora Hansgrohe no longer appearing to feature. 

As part of the series, the teams’ managers have undergone sit-down interviews, much like those in the F1: Drive to Survive episodes. These include Groupama-FDJ's Marc Madiot and EF Education-EasyPost's Jonathan Vaughters.

A number of journalists, working across various outlets around the world, have also been interviewed for the series. Among them is Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui, who revealed her involvement on her Instagram page.

What do we already know about it?

The producers of the series have so far released three trailers. 

The first was shown at the Mobile Live World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in March 2023 and showed on-bike footage, interviews with team managers and behind-the-scenes action. 

In April 2023, the Tour de France, Netflix and the participating teams, shared a new, one-minute trailer (below), which included the docuseries’s official name, ‘Tour de France: Unchained’, and release date of 8 June. 

A third trailer was released on 2 June, featuring interviews with Wout van Aert, Fabio Jakobsen and Thibaut Pinot. 

Of course, the story of the race, won by Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard, will already be well known to cycling fans.

The series will be available to stream on Netflix on 8 June. This coincides with the Critérium du Dauphiné , the key precursor stage race to the Tour. 

Unchained will be available in 190 territories, and will be released at 08:00 in the UK. This equates to 03:00 US east coast time, midnight on the US west coast, and 17:00 in Sydney, Australia. 

When the series is released, it will be shown here on Netflix's website . 

According to reports, Netflix covered the production costs of €8 million to make the series, paying a total of €1 million to the different parties involved. The participating teams are understood to have been given around €62,000 each.

Yes. Netflix's camera crews will embed once again within the peloton at the 2023 Tour de France for a second season of Unchained . 

It is unknown at this stage which teams will be taking part. 

Tour de France: Unchained is Netflix’s first official docuseries about the French Grand Tour. 

The streaming platform has, however, produced three seasons of a fly-on-the-wall series about the Movistar team, titled ‘The Least Expected Day’, covering the squad’s 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. 

Similar docuseries have been made about WorldTour teams Soudal Quick-Step, Jumbo-Visma and SD Worx for Amazon Prime. 

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Tom joined Cycling Weekly as a news and features writer in the summer of 2022, having previously contributed as a freelancer. He is the host of The TT Podcast , which covers both the men's and women's pelotons and has featured a number of prominent British riders. 

An enthusiastic cyclist himself, Tom likes it most when the road goes uphill and actively seeks out double-figure gradients on his rides. 

He's also fluent in French and Spanish and holds a master's degree in International Journalism. 

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Tour de France: Unchained — episodes, trailer and everything we know about the sports doc

Netflix continues to dive into the world of sports with Tour de France: Unchained.

The Tour de France is one of the signature sporting events on the global calendar every year, but cycling fans now have the chance to get a look into the race like never before with Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained docuseries.

This is the latest deep dive into sports for Netflix, following popular docuseries like Formula 1: Drive to Survive , Break Point and Full Swing . The goal is pretty much the same, with Unchained looking to provide an entry point for the casual or potential new cycling fan, while also giving an interesting, rarely seen look to diehards who already know the teams and cyclists featured.

With that in mind, here is everything that you need to know ahead of watching Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix.

Tour de France: Unchained release date

With the 2023 Tour de France set to begin on July 1, Tour de France: Unchained is set to be an appetizer for cycling fans, as it is now playing on Netflix. All eight episodes of the docuseries are available to binge at your pleasure.

See what else is new on Netflix in June .

Tour de France: Unchained premise

The goal of Tour de France: Unchained is to dive into everything that goes into the race like few other programs have before, hearing directly from the people that participate in the Tour alongside incredible behind-the-scenes footage.

For more details on that, here's the official synopsis from Netflix:

" Tour de France: Unchained closely follows all the Tour's actors, from riders to team managers, to understand the multiple stakes of a race that has become a true international symbol, broadcasted in 190 territories. The backstages of iconic teams will be unveiled, from the preparation phase to the finish line in Paris: 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."

Tour de France: Unchained episodes

Here are the synopses for all of the Tour de France: Unchained episodes:

Tour de France: Unchained episode 1, "The Grand Depart" "With mere days to go, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl announces their lineup and assesses the odds against them. Can Fabio Jakobsen sprint his way to a comeback?"

Tour de France: Unchained episode 2, "Welcome to Hell" "Stacked with fierce riders, team Jumbo-Visma takes on the cobblestones — but mechanical challenges and internal competition make for a chaotic stage."

Tour de France: Unchained episode 3, "The Weight of  Nation" "A third of the way into the race with no wins for France, Groupama-FDJ and AG2R-Citroën enter the mountain stage with the eyes of a nation upon them."

Tour de France: Unchained episode 4, "Attack, Counter Attack" "During the Granon stage, Jonas makes a bid for the yellow jersey — but when a swift Slovenian gets in his way, Jumbo-Visma changes their plan of attack."

Tour de France: Unchained episode 5, "Breakneck Speed" "As EF Education-EasyPost strategically showcase their young talent, the INEOS Grenadiers consider using their secret weapon: newcomer Thomas Pidcock."

Tour de France: Unchained episode 6, "Plan B" "When their leader drops out, Alpecin-Deceuninck hedges their bets on Jasper "Disaster" Philipsen. Will he live up to his nickname or redeem himself?"

Tour de France: Unchained episode 7, "Everything for the Podium" "The last week of the tour arrives. With his legacy on the line, 2018 winner Geraint Thomas battles Groupama-FDJ leader David Gaudu for a podium spot."

Tour de France: Unchained episode 8, "Road to Paris" "A final push in the mountains remains between the sprinters and Paris. While Fabio finds his fire, Jonas and Wout fight Tadej Pogacar to the finish."

Tour de France: Unchained trailer

Get pumped up for this all-new docuseries with the Tour de France: Unchained trailer directly below: 

Tour de France: Unchained participants

Netflix hasn't listed the official list of people who participated in the documentary, but we do know the teams that participated in the docuseries. They are:

• AG2R Citroën Team
• Alpecin-Fenix
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ cycling Team
• Ineos Grenadiers 
• BORA-hansgrohe
• Team Jumbo-Visma
• Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl

How to watch Tour de France: Unchained

Tour de France: Unchained is a Netflix original docuseries, so a subscription to the streaming service is required if you want to watch. If you're OK with ads, you can get a Netflix subscription for as little as $6.99 per month, though if you want to avoid any ads subscription prices start at $9.99 per month. 

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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Tour de France: Unchained

Documentary on the journey of eight teams taking part in the world's most challenging Tour de France bike race. Documentary on the journey of eight teams taking part in the world's most challenging Tour de France bike race. Documentary on the journey of eight teams taking part in the world's most challenging Tour de France bike race.

• Alec Newman
• Christian Prudhomme
• Steve Chainel
• 31 User reviews
• 12 Critic reviews

• Commentator

• Self - General Director, Tour de France

• Self - Ex-Professional Rider

• Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl …

• Self - World Champion, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl

• Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Rider …

• Self - Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Rider

• EF Education EasyPost …

• Self - Sports Journalist

• Ineos Grenadiers …

• Self - Teammate …

• Groupama-FDJ …

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The tour started in Denmark with 3 stages, with ca. 1,6 million spectators on the side of the road. 4 stages was won by Danes (Magnus Cort, Jonas Vingegaard, Mads Pedersen and Jonas Vingegaard) and ended With Jonas Vingegaard as the overall winner of the yellow and dotted jersey. On a side note, another dane won a stage in Tour the France Femmes ( Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig)

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• Runtime 45 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Netflix's 'Tour de France: Unchained' documentary coming on June 8

Eight-episode series delves behind the scenes at Jumbo-Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and six other teams at the 2022 Tour

Netflix's Tour de France documentary, Tour de France: Unchained, is just hours away from release with the eight-episode series released on June 8.

The series will delve behind the scenes of last year's race just in time to whet appetites for a rematch between Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) this July.

While UAE didn't let Netflix's cameras into their team bus, Jumbo-Visma did, meaning viewers will get unprecedented access to their victorious campaign. Ineos Grenadiers, Groupama-FDJ, EF Education-EasyPost, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe, and AG2R Citroën will also feature with exclusive interviews, insight, and a new perspective on racing the Tour.

Between them, the eight teams directly involved in the series won 11 of the 21 stages at last year's race. Viewers will get an insight into Jasper Philipsen's pair of sprint victories, Tom Pidcock's daring Galibier descent , and Wout van Aert's triple triumph as well as Vingegaard's toppling of Pogačar in the high mountains.

Netflix Tour de France documentary trailer reveals drama of 2022 race The subtle presence of Netflix at the 2022 Tour de France The complete guide to the 2023 Tour de France 2023 Tour de France route

Earlier this year, Cyclingnews obtained the official trailer after it was shown at the Mobile Live World Congress in Barcelona. At the end of April, the first trailer was officially released, showing brief highlights from the eight episodes.

Included in the trailer is Groupama-FDJ boss Marc Madiot telling his riders, "You are soldiers, you are warriors. When you pull on a jersey, you become another person."

Highlights of Pidcock's ride, Thibaut Pinot's struggles, the cobbled Arenberg stage, on-bike footage, team manager reactions, and various high-speed crashes are also included.

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A second trailer (see above) was released in early June in the lead-up to the documentary's release. Clips show interviews with Fabio Jakobsen, Thibaut Pinot, and Yves Lampaert, while action shots of mountain GC battles are interspersed with fast-paced sprint finishes.

Tour de France: Unchained, which was made by Quadbox - a joint venture between Quad and Box to Box Films production companies - will be shown in 190 territories around the world. In France, the series will be known as 'Tour de France: Au cœur du peloton' ('Inside the peloton').

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).

"This project is part of our overall ambition to make our sport more accessible and meet an even wider audience," ASO managing director Yann Le Moënner said when he confirmed the Netflix series during the winter.

“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."

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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

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Eight Moments We Hope are Included in Tour de France Unchained Season 2

These are some of the Tour’s defining moments we think deserve a peek behind the curtain.

It’s been made clear that one of the main storylines the show will follow will be that of Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates, who declined to participate in the show’s first season. Though it was rumored they would again opt out of having Netflix cameras people in their faces while trying to win the biggest of all the bike races, the team confirmed in late July that they would in fact take part.

Additionally, Astana Qazaqstan struck a deal with the show’s producers as well, that their star Mark Cavendish , who started this year’s Tour with a goal of breaking his tie with Eddy Merckx for most stage wins ever, featured in the new season. So that accounts for two of the Tour’s biggest headliners. But what about some other moments deserving of a peek-behind-the-curtains treatment?

The eight teams who were featured in season one—Jumbo-Visma, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal-QuickStep, Ineos Grenadiers, Groupama-FDJ, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe and AG2R Citroën—are set to return.

Additionally, Lidl-Trek and Jayco-AlUla are rumored to be involved. Add in UAE Team Emirates and Astana Qazaqstan and Netflix should have most of the peloton covered. However, that does leave a few omissions that really made this year’s Tour something special. But more on those in a bit.

And so, considering as much, here are eight of the Tour-defining moments we hope are included in season two of Tour de France: Unchained ; and a few we really hope the producers figured out how to let us see.

Yates Versus Yates

One notable element of the modern Tour de France is its embrace of fireworks right from the jump. And 2023’s race lived up to the early-slate hype. In fact, it was in the earliest slate that we were treated to some drama that went beyond the peloton and into one family.

Twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates launched an attack just over the top of Stage 1’s final climb—the super-steep Cote de Pike—dropping Pogačar, Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard, and Cofidis’s Victor Lafay in the process.

Heading into downtown Bilbao, the brothers traded blows until finally Simon, riding for UAE Team Emirates, pulled away from Jayco-AlUla’s Simon in the final kilometer of the day, netting him the race’s first yellow jersey.

And so, UAE Team Emirates’ decision to participate not only gives us more Pogi, but will likely dig deep into the brother-against-brother fight from the Tour’s very first stage.

A Tyranny of Motos

Of the handful of moments from this year’s Tour that will be replayed forever, there are two that had nothing at all to do with bikes, and at least one of which, at the time, had many convinced helped decide the final outcome of the Tour (though, after seeing a certain time trial we’ll discuss in a moment, it’s hard to make that argument in good faith).

Just a handful of meters from the top of the mighty hors categorie Col de Joux Plane (and just a few hundred meters past where I was watching the race go by ), Tadej Pogačar tried to launch what may have been a decisive attack on his GC rival Jonas Vingegaard.

The attack was foiled, of course. Not by a Vingegaard counterpunch. Rather, by a pair of race vehicles who blocked Pogačar’s attack, allowing eventual Tour winner Vingegaard to get back on his rival’s wheel.

Just three stages later, it was Vingegaard on the receiving end of a moto blockade. As he put what ended up being decisive time into Pogačar on the slopes of the Col de la Loze, Vingegaard ran into a moto and an official race car, both of which stalled on the steep slopes of the Loze. He slowly had to navigate around them, almost as if he were riding in city traffic. Lucky for him, Pogačar had already suffered a previously unthinkable fate.

“I’m gone. I’m dead.”

Four words that will forever live in Tour de France infamy, uttered by a young rider who was previously perceived as almost impervious.

Tadej Pogačar doesn’t crack on climbs. Impossible.

Except, some ways up the Col de la Loze, he did. And as he did, he spoke those words into his chest-mounted race radio, letting his team know that his bid for the yellow jersey was all but finished.

Vingegaard, on the other hand, took the opportunity to plunge the knife into Pog, and, despite those stalled motos, put more than five minutes into his closest competitor, ending the day with an insurmountable seven-and-a-half-minute lead.

The Time Trial of a Lifetime

It was on that stage that everyone expected Tadej to come back, to launch an attack, likely somewhere up the Col de la Loze, to close the minute-and-a-half gap that Vingegaard had put into him the stage prior, courtesy of a time trial that some cycling experts say was the greatest they’d ever seen.

Going into the Stage 16 time trial, Vingegaard led Pogačar by ten seconds, and a cycling world thought we were in for one hell of a final week of racing. Coming out of that time trial, Vingegaard led Pog by 1:48, after putting 1:38 into his rival. Watching that run gave some people flashbacks to Pog’s first Tour win, when he snatched victory from Vingegaard’s teammate, Primož Roglič, in the race’s penultimate stage.

No one could quite believe Vingegaard’s performance, including the young Dane himself.

“At one point, I even doubted my power meter,” he said.

A Bit of Redemption

By the time Stage 20 rolled around, the Tour de France was all but finished. But if you watched the final climb of the Tour in a vacuum, you might be convinced otherwise.

Because on that climb, Tadej Pogačar attacked relentlessly, knowing he had almost no shot to win the Tour de France. Still, he climbed valiantly alongside a small group that included Vingegaard, who launched a sprint just a few hundred meters from the finish. Pogačar responded, taking control with just meters to go, and pumped his arms furiously as he crossed the line as stage winner.

One of the other men Pog caught and dropped up that final grade? Thibaut Pinot, who was in the throes of his own heroic climb, in what was his last go at his home race, in front of a nation of fans who revere him like few others.

Adieu, Pinot

Few French riders have been as beloved in the modern age as Thibaut Pinot. The ever-mercurial climber took a retirement tour around his home country in the form of the 2023 Tour de France. And while he never truly threatened to win a stage (the closest he came was a fourth-place finish in Stage 1), he displayed plenty of his trademark Pinot-ness throughout Le Tour.

None of those moments were more apropos, however, than that final attack, which took place in the Vosges, a range of mountains were Pinot was raised and climbed thousands of times before; a climb which, like so many of Pinot’s Tour moments, just wasn’t meant to be.

Surely, his final Tour de France will get plenty of facetime in Tour de France: Unchained . Hopefully much of it will revolved around that final, beautiful effort that was, in a way, a microcosm of Pinot’s entire career.

Cav Crashes Out

Quadbox, the producers of Unchained , must have been thrilled when Astana Qazaqstan, and thereby Mark Cavendish, signed on for season two. Outside of the battle for yellow, there was no bigger story than the Manx Missile getting another go to break the deadlock he holds with Eddy Merckx for most Tour stage wins ever (34).

And he came oh-so-close in Stage 7, finishing second to eventual green jersey winner Jasper Philipsen thanks to a mechanical issue that sent his bike from the 11-tooth sprocket to the 12-tooth. The jump in gears forced Cav to sit down, shift back to the 11, and resume his sprint, by which time, Philipsen had taken control.

A sign of things to come, so many of us thought. He has the form!

Alas, it took less than one more stage to end the dream of thirty-five, as Cavendish crashed hard the very next day, forcing his abandonment of the race in Stage 8.

Of course, just a few weeks ago, Cav announced his plan to put off his retirement for one more year, to give the thirty-fifth win another go. Season 3, anyone?

Philipsen’s Green Jersey

One major storyline of the first season of Tour de France: Unchained were the seemingly perpetual woes of Jasper Philipsen, the young sprinter who eventually caught fire in 2022, winning Stage 15 and the ultimate sprint stage, the Champs-Élysées (which Unchained caught in one of the most beautiful shots this writer has ever seen).

But the young man who was once called “Jasper the Disaster” suddenly became “Jasper the Master” as he sprinted to four stage victories in the 2023 Tour, dominating the green jersey competition throughout the course of the race.

And remember those omissions I mentioned? Well, there were a few stories I hope the Tour de France: Unchained producers sort out how to get into the show, as they were some of the most emotionally charged Tour moments I can remember. But the teams behind them don’t appear in the Unchained roster.

The first came courtesy of French outfit Team Cofidis, who came into this year’s Tour with only two stage wins on their palmarés.

But with just one kilometer to go in the second stage of this year’s Tour, Cofidis rider Victor Lafay charged ahead, dropping two of cycling’s worldbeaters—Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar—en route to the team’s first victory since 2008.

The second thing I hope to see in Unchained was a pair of the most heart-rending things I’ve seen in any sport, not just cycling. They were both courtesy of team Bahrain-Victorious, who, just a few weeks prior to the Tour, lost their rider Gino Mäder , who was killed in a crash during the Tour de Suisse.

First, was Pello Bilbao’s Stage 10 win, which he dedicated to his teammate Mäder, saying, “I had to win for Gino. I wanted to wait for the biggest moment to win for him. When I crossed the line, it was an incredible explosion of feelings.”

A few days later, after Bahrain-Victorius’s Matej Mohorič edged Soudal-QuickStep’s Kasper Asgreen by what amounted to the width of a bike rim to win Stage 19, an exhausted Mohorič gave one of the most emotionally honest post-race interviews I’ve ever seen.

Considering how Tour de France: Unchained used some clever editing to include some of the essential storylines in season one, I’m confident we’ll get at least a peek at these most human elements of this race that so often seems superhuman.

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Tour de France Unchained Netflix documentary to be released on June 8

Series will consist of eight 45-minute episodes

Marco Bertorello / Getty Images

Stan Portus

The Netflix series Tour de France Unchained will be released on 8 June, according to the first official trailer released on Le Tour de France's YouTube channel.

The series was first unveiled in March 2022, when Netflix announced a partnership with A.S.O., organiser of the Tour de France, to create a documentary series based on the 2022 race.

The series is produced by Quadbox, a joint venture between Quad and Box to Box Films, the sports film producer behind Netflix’s incredibly popular Formula 1 series Drive to Survive .

Tour de France Unchained will document the trials and tribulations of eight teams at the 2022 edition of the race, including Jumbo-Visma and Jonas Vingegaard's eventual victory.

Read our Tour de France Unchained review .

First episode focuses on Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl

The first episode of Tour de France Unchained was screened at CanneSeries, the television festival linked to Cannes Film Festival, in April 2023.

RMC reports the first episode screened at the festival focused primarily on Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

RMC says the episode looks at the decisions of team boss Patrick Lefevere, the non-selection of Julian Alaphilippe and Fabio Jakobsen’s success at the race following his life-threatening crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland.

Yann Le Bourbouac’h, one of the producers, explained to RMC how they “tried to work on the boundary between documentary and cinema” seeking out characters in the race.

“With Fabio, we tried to show that he had almost died two years ago and that two years later he is doing his first Tour de France and winning a stage,” Le Bourbouac’h explained.

Alongside the series following Jumbo-Visma's overall winner Jonas Vingegaard, RMC also reports an episode will be focused around Groupama-FDJ and Thibaut Pinot.

A teaser trailer was shown during a keynote speech by the streaming service’s co-CEO Greg Peter at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 28 February. Pinot featured in the teaser trailer, stating how “when you are French and in a French team, you’re in for a huge amount of pressure [at the Tour de France].”

Drive to Survive, but with bikes?

Drive to Survive saw interest in Formula 1 increase substantially in 2020. According to global analytics company Nielson, an average of 2.7 million 16 to 35-year-olds became interested in F1 every month in the year beginning March 2000.

Speaking to RMC, Le Bourbouac’h explained how the Tour de France series will differ from Drive to Survive.

"You have to understand that Formula 1 is a championship where you follow one race and then another. You can adjust your narrative arcs. The Tour de France does not wait for you. It's different work, it's different stories," he explained.

Regardless of the differences between the two shows, if Netflix’s Tour de France series proves anywhere near as popular as Drive to Survive , there could be a massive increase in interest in the Tour de France and cycling more generally.

What is the Tour de France Netflix documentary about?

Netflix has said its Tour de France series will “follow as closely as possible all the actors of the Tour de France, from cyclists to team managers to understand the multiple stakes of a race”.

It promises to show the racing but also the ‘backstages’ of the eight teams involved, from how they prepare for the Grand Boucle’s stages to crossing the finish line.

Yann Le Moënner, director general of A.S.O., says the docuseries will show how the race poses the ‘ultimate challenge’ for its competitors through a narrative approach.

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, sports director at France Télévisions, says it will “allow everyone to experience part of the daily life of champions and teams”.

This is not dissimilar to Drive to Survive which, to a certain extent, dramatises the F1 season and provides behind-the-scenes footage fans wouldn’t usually see.

Cyclingnews has reported that 70 accreditations were issued for filming at the 2022 Tour de France for the series. Each of the eight teams involved is said to have had a dedicated film crew, while a separate crew tried to cover the broader story of the race.

Which teams are involved in the Tour de France Netflix documentary?

There are eight WorldTour teams involved in the Tour de France Netflix documentary:

• AG2R Citroën Team
• Alpecin-Fenix
• Bora-Hansgrohe
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ Cycling Team
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Team Jumbo-Visma
• Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl

The major omission from this list is UAE Team Emirates, the team of Tadej Pogačar, who won the 2021 edition of the race and came second in 2022.

Team Jumbo-Visma’s inclusion in the documentary will provide insight into winner Jonas Vingegaard’s race. But if UAE Team Emirates and Pogačar were in the documentary we could see how the battle for first and second place played out from both sides.

One reason why UAE Team Emirates may have opted not to be in the documentary is teams were paid €50,000 to be involved, according to Cyclingnews .

Patrick Lefevere, general manager of Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, described the sum as “peanuts” in Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad . UAE Team Emirates may have deemed the cash not enough to justify the disturbance of a film crew to its Tour proceedings.

What happened at the 2022 Tour de France?

The 2022 Tour de France was the 109th edition of the race. It started with an individual time trial in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The race was touted as being a battle between defending champion Tadej Pogačar and the might of Team Jumbo-Visma, which played out from the off.

Team Jumbo-Visma controlled the race in the first week before Pogačar claimed the yellow jersey with two consecutive stage wins.

When the race hit the Alps, Team Jumbo-Visma challenged Pogačar’s lead and eventually broke the young Slovenian, with Jonas Vingegaard taking the lead.

Vingegaard defended his lead through the Pyrenees and cemented it on the final individual time trial.

Wout van Aert of Team Jumbo-Visma won the points classification and, alongside the yellow jersey, Vingegaard won the king of the mountains classification. This made the 2022 edition of the race the first time one team has won all three of the Tour de France jerseys since 1969.

Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers came third, continuing his success after winning the 2022 Tour de Suisse.

The 2022 Tour de France also saw climate change protesters blocking the route during the summer heatwave, which saw temperatures hit 40˚C while the race was in progress.

A number of riders withdrew due to Covid-19, including Magnus Cort of EF Education-EasyPost, who animated the king of the mountains competition in the first week.

If the 2023 Tour de France is anywhere near as dramatic, the Netflix series should prove quite the watch as a precursor and an inside view ahead of the 2023 action.

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The film runs across two parts. The first, with a running time of 3 hours and 40 minutes, will be presented as the pre-opening event at Cannes and as the opening film of Cannes Classics. The film will then be shown in its entirety with a live performance of the film score, with 250 musicians from Radio France at the Seine Musicale in Paris on July 4 and 5, as well as at the Radio France festival in Montpellier, and then at the Cinemathèque française. It will be released in French cinemas and shown on France Télévisions and Netflix, Cannes said today. 

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