The third and final season of ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ is almost here, and it’s more French than ever. This is both understandable, coming from Netflix France and producers QuadBox, and, for the most part, justified given the home nation’s successes at the 2024 Tour. However, just as the French storylines dried up by the first rest day, so does this series begin to sag after a propulsive start.
It’s not without some big highs, though. We get the usual behind-the-scenes footage alongside original race coverage, plus varyingly insightful interviews to camera, and a few home visits with the requisite partner, parent or pal feeding our protagonists talking points. There are a few absolute gems, both in terms of storytelling and the compelling characters involved. Episode 6 is a high point of storytelling thanks to two of the 2024 Tour’s history-making sprinters, and there’s some seemingly genuine insight into a few of the key players and key stages, like the Troyes gravel stage contained within episode 4. Other highlights include Primož Roglič as class clown (who knew!), his new disgruntled DS Rolf Aldag, French team bosses Marc Madiot and Emmanuel Hubert, smooth operator Mikel Landa and an unshackled Tom Pidcock, among others.
As we’ve become accustomed, the episodes jump around a fair bit, the timeline manipulated to better (mostly) package the chosen themes, while almost completely ignoring the points, KOM and youth classifications. All that said, the chronology does appear more linear here than in past seasons, thanks in part to the gift of Romain Bardet’s stage 1 victory that afforded the producers a perfect launchpad for their French audience, while also offsetting super-team dominance.
A key theme of the whole series is encapsulated in the title of the opening episode: ‘David v Goliath’. We hear a lot about the business of cycling, the overwhelming power and financial superiority of teams like UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and the largely French teams who are trying not just to compete but survive in this changing landscape. So far, so familiar (and dramatic).
Did we do a good job with this story?
