The Winner of the Tour De France 2023 Is Netflix
Every night for the past 3 weeks I watch Belgian TV’s Vive le Velo. I either listen to it on my commute home or watch it at home before going to bed. Vive le Velo provides a summary and analysis of the day’s Tour de France stage, interspersed with behind the tour mini documentaries and touristic escapades. The latter makes it an attractive balanced show and much different from a typical post-race ESPN analysis. It wides the audience beyond the die hard cycling enthusiast. I suspect it is the highest rated television show in Flanders at the moment (unless there is some reality soap on another channel I am not aware of. Ex-on-the-beach?).
The fact that a cycling show scores in cycling-crazy Belgium is no surprise. Yet also internationally, cycling is gaining in popularity. Lance Armstrong’s The Move and Geraint Thomas’ Watts Occuring are both highly popular podcasts. And more importantly, like a sprinter in the wheel of their lead out, Netflix and the Tour de France: Unchained timed it perfectly.
The Tour is sex and rock ’n roll - no more drugs. Full gas from day one and every day. Woef’ing a la Victor or Wout. Attacking like Tadej. Time trailing like Jonas. Sprinting like Jasper. Young guns are putting it all on the line. What a sea of difference from the Indurain or the Sky-Froome years!
Netflix has a front seat to it all. We got a first taste in June of what happens inside the team busses. Even for a fanatic like myself, this was new and interesting to watch. I can not wait until June next year when Unchained season 2 comes out.
Next stops: Glasgow (world championships) and the Vuelta a Espana. The Vuelta may give us a preview of what to expect in the Tour next year. This will be more than a battle between two. Geraint, Jonas, Primoz, Remco, Juan, and Enric are all heading to Barcelona.