True, but the series is about the Tour, not about broader cycling. So not much point using up screen time to introduce characters who aren’t racing in the Tour, unless doing so helps to set the scene for the race. I guess they could have used either Alaphilippe or Cavendish to set the scene, they maybe picked Alaphilippe since at the time they were putting this together he would be much more likely to be a key personality in future Tours/series whereas Cav was quite likely to never ride the Tour again. No doubt Cav will feature in the next series (if Astana are one of the teams taking part?) as his quest to get the record will be one of the stories this year whether he succeeds or fails.
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I’m 4 episodes in already #WFH
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Personally, I can’t imagine doing this. The cinematography is fantastic.
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I think the biggest reason they went with Alaphilippe over Cav is that this is a French centered documentary and Alaphilippe is French and Cav is not.
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I’ve gotten through 3 episodes…last night i fell asleep watching one and then flipped over to the golf version (full swing) and could not stop watching…soo good.
Maybe i’m over the tour
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I actually don’t really like it as much as I expected. Why do they have to make it “interesting” with all these crashes?!
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Tension, drama, conflict and the like are often parts of these types of shows when compared to other options that steer more towards a documentary style.
Drive to Survive did that on the F1 side and drew in many new viewers who never understood the deeper elements behind drivers with funny names racing odd looking cars on tracks that turned left AND right 
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I wouldn’t watch Full Swing unless there were spectacular crashes, road rash and broken collar bones. Just saying
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I want to see a show where pro riders have to do a Tour without masseurs, mechanic guy, … With spare parts in their jersey and a tent.
Bike to live.
I would watch it.
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Paging Tiger Woods…
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I think it would be even cooler to have, say, a field of cat 3 racers race the tour de france.
The really should have called it “In the Heart of the Peloton” like in the original French.
I’m finding the French guy that explains cycling to the noob viewers kind of annoying. I initially found Marc Madiot super annoying but he’s growing on me. I’m halfway through the Pinot episode. Pinot is great!
It looks like they’ve put the video footage through some filter for an over-saturated film like look.
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We kinda got that with Lachlan’s Alt Tour.
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We’ve got just an episode left in our household. My wife’s a “listen to husband talk about the TdF” viewer. I’m a “sign into Peacock at work” viewer. We’re both enjoying the show a lot.
Obviously it’s all a bit of a drama doc. They talk about the trials of EF but don’t really touch on EF actually having a pretty good overall tour. Drama with Quick-Step without mentioning Cavendish, etc.
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I just watched the Pinot episode and I can’t help but feel a disconnect between his on camera persona versus his actual one. Still seems like a nice guy but it feels like some of his struggles are self-imposed
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He wears his heart on his sleeve at times which is why the crowd loves him. Could you imagine the pressure of being the next great French hope?
The “will Wout work for the GC riders or not” was totally fake manufactured drama.
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My wife both loves it and hates it (crashes). My 23 yr old saw the second half of the first episode this morning, stage 2 over the 18km bridge/causeway - and she said “wow, I had no idea it was a team sport.”
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This. I enjoyed the series and love that cycling is starting to get some “mainstream” treatment but there was some weird creatives choices which bug me.
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Omitting the Cavendish storyline even though cuts Quickstep had to make was the topic of episode 1
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EF Educations’s arc: “we really need to win a stage or else we go extinct”. Next episode: oh btw we won a stage with Magnus Cort but let’s focus on Neilson Powless though.
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Jumbo’s arc: obviously Jonas and Wout were going to get a lot of airtime but the “protect the gc guys or win stages” drama seemed overplayed. I do get why Netflix added it but still irked me. Kind of bummed that the other Jumbo riders (Sepp, etc.) did not get any face time.
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They did a decent job of introducing people new to cycling the mechanics on how the Tour/bike racing works. But I was surprised the different jerseys (points, mountain) weren’t even explained or woven into an arc.
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They completely omitted Pogacar’s crash and the Jonas/Pogacar handshake in stage 18?!
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Two episodes focused on French teams. Now I get it: it’s a French documentary but I felt like it took up way too much time from other, more relevant storylines.
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No interviews, access with Pogacar/UAE. Now I get this was most definitely a UAE decision to not grant access. But I hope this changes for season 2.
Grievances aside I am glad this series exists and I look forward to season 2.
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I don’t disagree that it would have been nice, but I do feel like they did a fantastic job with it — Pog’s entire persona was built of just people saying what a savage he is on the bike. It made him feel invincible, so when Roglic and Vingegaard cracked him it was a major high point.
My guess is that this is no different than what F1 Drive To Survive went through. Season 1 was thin on which teams were interviewed. As the series took off, the list expanded.
I’m guessing a bunch of TDF teams weren’t excited to be involved. If the show does well, we’ll see if there’s more access.
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