{"id":195905,"date":"2024-06-13T14:33:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T14:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=195905"},"modified":"2024-06-13T14:33:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T14:33:27","slug":"tour-de-france-unchained-season-2-reveals-the-drama-beauty-and-danger-of-the-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/06\/13\/tour-de-france-unchained-season-2-reveals-the-drama-beauty-and-danger-of-the-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France: Unchained Season 2 Reveals the Drama, Beauty and Danger of the Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained 2 is quite different from its 2023 predecessor, which was thrilling but incomplete, for the simple reason that road racing is as complex as a Russian novel and cannot be accurately portrayed in a single season. Another reason the first part of this series left me a bit hungry was that UAE Team Emirates did not open its doors to the filmmakers, and thus deprived us of a close-up and personal look at not only the greatest rider of his generation but also the most fascinating \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That has been rectified in this year\u2019s offering so viewers are treated to a more comprehensive look at the duel in last year\u2019s Tour between the Slovenian \u2013 who was coming off an injury suffered in the Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge, which compromised his chances \u2013 and Jonas Vingegaard who won his second yellow jersey in a row last year.<\/p>\n

But Unchained Season 2<\/em> was, unfortunately, forced to add another element of road racing, a reminder that the high-speed sport we love is, sometimes, a matter of life and death. Episode 1 opens with AG2R-Citro\u00ebn\u2019s Ben O\u2019Connor being informed of the death of Swiss rider Gino M\u00e4der<\/a> in a high-speed crash during his home race, the Tour de Suisse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis death reminded us of our fragility,\u201d O\u2019Connor says, though I\u2019d say that, given that no race is without its harrowing incidents and crashes, a road racer must be aware every time they sit on a bike of just how vulnerable they are at 100 km\/h. Julian Alaphilippe\u2019s comment, following a minute\u2019s silence in M\u00e4der\u2019s memory, comes closer to expressing a road racer\u2019s fragility: \u201cWe are nothing on Earth and even less on a bike. Just mentioning Gino gives me the chills.\u201d<\/p>\n

This issue is particularly pertinent this year as the sport has suffered two mass crashes, at the Itzulia Basque Country<\/a> and, recently, in the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9. Every year, new speed records are set for races and every year, there are more serious crashes and more injuries. It is becoming an issue begging for a remedy.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

Because this is a French production, Unchained Season 2<\/em> spends a lot of time on French riders, focusing, for example, on Alaphilippe\u2019s feud with his Soudal\u2013Quick Step boss, Patrick Lefevere. The always acerbic Lefevere had criticised the French two-time world champion\u2019s weak performances, which were due largely to a series of crashes and illnesses he had suffered.<\/p>\n

But Alaphilippe is a straight shooter. \u201cYou want the truth? I was crap on this Tour,\u201d he admits, adding, however: \u201cHow much am I paid? A bit too much for Patrick, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French focus also provides what is arguably the most moving chapter of the series, the last ride for Tour glory by the valiant Thibaut Pinot and the marvellous support he received from his fans at the \u201cThibaut curve\u201d as he passed them in his last-ever Tour mountain stage with a 26-second lead. He finished seventh in the stage.<\/p>\n

Alpecin-Deceunick\u2019s ITT specialist Jasper Philipsen, who went from \u201cJasper Disaster\u201d to \u201cJasper the Master\u201d in this Tour, also gets his due en route to a dominant green jersey championship.<\/p>\n

M\u00e4der is again a subject of the series in episode 4, which focuses on Bahrain Victorious\u2019s attempt to win a Tour stage in honour of their deceased rider. The most articulate and emotional characters in this chapter are Pello Bilbao and Matej Mohori\u010d. The latter falls short of a victory on the unforgiving slopes of the Puy de D\u00f4me on stage 9 but Bilbao gets the win on the very next stage and then manages to contain his emotions as he thanks his family for helping him cope with the loss of his friend, adding: \u201cI needed to do my best for Gino.\u201d<\/p>\n

Episode 7 shows Mohori\u010d\u2019s emotional, articulate and deeply philosophical interview after he, too, gets a stage victory, on stage 19. The win, he said, \u201cmeans a lot because it\u2019s just hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist. You suffer a lot in preparations. You sacrifice your life, your family and you do everything you can to get here ready. And then, after a couple of days, you realise that everybody here is just so incredibly strong that it\u2019s just so hard to follow the wheel sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That interview should be required viewing for all athletes.<\/p>\n

Of course, the marquee battle between Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard is not omitted, with the Slovenian\u2019s shocking collapse on stage 17 featuring prominently. This follows a bit of controversy after Vingegaard\u2019s super-human performance in the stage 16 time trial where he beat Poga\u010dar by 1:38. This inspired the always controversial Marc Madiot to hint darkly, \u201cAt some point, the truth will come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The always sober Vingegaard replies to the slur by gazing straight into the camera and saying, convincingly, \u201cI am clean. Even in a hundred years, nothing will be found in my samples.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Tour de France: Unchained Season 2 <\/a>reminds fans just how much non-racing drama takes place during the Tour but wisely focuses its cameras on the racing drama, which, as in Season 1, is thrilling, scary and highly entertaining. The series is not perfect, of course, but it\u2019s a challenge to carve sense out of the always chaotic and frenetic competition that is road racing.<\/p>\n

Any fan of the sport will be delighted by all eight episodes, interested not-yet fans will be enlightened and seduced, and everyone who watches the series will be richly entertained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained 2 is quite different from its 2023 predecessor, which was thrilling but incomplete, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":193343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,334],"tags":[5643,5436,4453,648,433,7859,7858],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-195905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-gino-mader","tag-jasper-philipsen","tag-matej-mohoric","tag-patrick-lefevere","tag-tour-de-france","tag-tour-de-france-unchained-season-2","tag-tour-de-france-unchained-2","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nTour de France: Unchained Season 2 Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained 2 is quite different from its 2023 predecessor, which was 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