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Tour De France: Unchained aka that netflix thingy

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I think he means the last three editions. They have not been made documentaries of (yet). Only 2016-2020.

As far as I know the last documentary was produced for the 2021 Ronde, which was broadcast last year. For the 2022 Ronde no documentary was made. It had become a bit of a tradition, as it was usually made available in the run-up to the Ronde. But this spring the VRT (Fleminsh public broadcasting) announced that they thought the series had run its course:


The Ronde 105 documentary doesn't seem to be currently available on YouTube. With a VPN and a VRT account, you can watch it on VRT MAX.
 
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I watched the first episode of this series, and it is outstanding.
Contrary to what some people think, I don't see them dumbing it down to the point of tedium. I think they're doing a fantastic job combining the inherent drama for newcomers in a way that doesn't offend seasoned watchers of the sport. But that's just my opinion.
I'm pretty sure John Tesh will tell you that a little knowledge will go a long way when portraying the sport to a wider, unsuspecting audience. The basic premise sells itself. Add people who know how to frame and tell a story, and you're pretty much good to go.
So far so good.

Agreed. When DS's on Tour teams are discussion strategy and giving instructions, that's not dumbing anything down.

But some want to see everything through the lens of "I am a cycling expert" and don't appreciate what's right in front of them.
 
Agreed. When DS's on Tour teams are discussion strategy and giving instructions, that's not dumbing anything down.

But some want to see everything through the lens of "I am a cycling expert" and don't appreciate what's right in front of them.
This reminds me of the talking heads in the series, all of whom say cycling is not checkers, it's a game of chess. That mantra is repeated throughout and sounds interesting, but that's a bunch of bullocks.
Everything in cycling boils down to strength. The strongest teams win the race. See, for instance, the Armstrong years, where the tactics were used to perfection -- i.e. the team rides everyone else off their wheel.
Those tried and true tactics remain today.: Don't fix what isn't broken.
But it's fun to think that maybe there's some mastermind who determines which tactics are used to win a race. The tactics are all the same, regardless if it's a sprint stage or a climbing stage.
 
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This reminds me of the talking heads in the series, all of whom say cycling is not checkers, it's a game of chess. That mantra is repeated throughout and sounds interesting, but that's a bunch of bullocks.
Everything in cycling boils down to strength. The strongest teams win the race. See, for instance, the Armstrong years, where the tactics were used to perfection -- i.e. the team rides everyone else off their wheel.
Those tried and true tactics remain today.: Don't fix what isn't broken.
But it's fun to think that maybe there's some mastermind who determines which tactics are used to win a race. The tactics are all the same, regardless if it's a sprint stage or a climbing stage.

In most cases, sure. But (for example) what about the strategy of isolating your biggest (maybe stronger) rival from his team and attacking him until he breaks? Sometimes tactics win Grand Tours.

With Armstrong, there is certainly one tactic he used to perfection.
 
I think it’s very good. Just watched through to episode 5: stage 12 - Tom Pidcock’s win on AdH. Nice to relive that descent again. After watching the first episode I thought it was a JV advertisement - not so, at least to stage 12.

That descent was absolutely heroic! If Bernal does not have his A game, I hope Pidders takes command and works his way up the GC.
 
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What's the Ronde series?
A series of documentaries covering the Tour of Flanders behind the scenes. Produced by Flemish public television. They are quite enjoyable, in my opinion. 5 of the 6 films are available on YouTube, with English subtitles. I posted the first one (about the 2016 Ronde) at the top of the page. Here are the other ones:

View: https://youtu.be/KNpvsJ3_OJo


View: https://youtu.be/j8iHLADDMKQ


View: https://youtu.be/BpiFLhmMFNk


View: https://youtu.be/ESNeRrkrf9M
 
Mar 31, 2021
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A series of documentaries covering the Tour of Flanders behind the scenes. Produced by Flemish public television. They are quite enjoyable, in my opinion. 5 of the 6 films are available on YouTube, with English subtitles. I posted the first one (about the 2016 Ronde) at the top of the page. Here are the other ones:

View: https://youtu.be/KNpvsJ3_OJo


View: https://youtu.be/j8iHLADDMKQ


View: https://youtu.be/BpiFLhmMFNk


View: https://youtu.be/ESNeRrkrf9M
Brilliant!

:)

Thank you
 
One thing that was hammered home by JV during the series is the importance of sponsorship.
More eyes on the brand increases the chances of receiving a return on investment.
Why do teams like Bahrain Victorious, Israel Premier Tech and UAE exist?
Is their involvement a giant tourism advertisement?
Does anyone know if these teams funnel money into creating a cycling infrastructure -- e.g. creating programs within the country that includes hiring coaches to train future TDF winners?
 
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Not seen everything. But....

The Marc Madiot, Julien Jurdie and Pinot episodes are good TV. Emotional at times and you can feel the urge regarding winning and being french. The stage Bob wins is one of these stages where you sit at home and don't know the background story of the pressure these guys performs under. When Julien approach Ben with "you will ride tomorrow" even though he can't feel his leg was perhaps unnessecary nessecary because it somehow worked.

Team work is really an essence.

Jumbo and UAE is a little bit c*ck and b*lls - hope they get tag-teamet by Ineos, Trek and Quickstep. Cant't help to like Vaughters a little bit and I am really fond of the teams effort given their budget. Matti is a star on that team and I believe he does a good job.

All in all, I like the show. Netflix should do one with the ladies pro teams, I think that would be really action packed and fun to watch.
 
Just finished. I thought it was actually very well done. I like how it followed different storylines to give people personal narratives to follow. I mainly would have liked more for Pogacar to have been featured. He’s obviously more compelling than Vingegaard. He was great as always. Jasper Disaster was a standout feature.

Also, @Logic-is-your-friend I hate to tell you but Wout, Vingegaard, and the TJV manager all confirmed that Vingegaard allowed Wout to win that ITT.
 
Just finished. I thought it was actually very well done. I like how it followed different storylines to give people personal narratives to follow. I mainly would have liked more for Pogacar to have been featured. He’s obviously more compelling than Vingegaard. He was great as always. Jasper Disaster was a standout feature.

Also, @Logic-is-your-friend I hate to tell you but Wout, Vingegaard, and the TJV manager all confirmed that Vingegaard allowed Wout to win that ITT.
I'm putting up my WvA fanboy hat for a second:
Yes, Vingegaard had 1.3 seconds at the last time check. From there, it was still 8-9 kms from the finish. Unfortunately, we don't have Strava data from Vingegaard, we only have Pogacar to compare, and he didn't have a very good day. Still, WvA really put the hammer down on that last part (almost all segments KOM), and given the near mishap of Vingegaard in that last descent, he took it easy on the last climb to Rocamadour (a 3:22 effort by WvA). It's probably possible, watching the footage, to analyse where Vingegaard let it go and how much time he conceded soft pedalling, but for me, it wasn't a given that Vingegaard would have won the stage.
What I got from the Netflix documentary, was that the odds were possibly 80/20 for Vingegaard if he pushed on, but they allow the odds go 0/100 in favour of WvA when they knew Pogacar wasn't beating WvA and thus the victory would be in the team anyway. Vingegaard should have won if he kept pushing, but only if he kept pushing very hard.

What I understood from that TT was that WvA was already very, very tired and it was quite the feat to still finish first (or if Vingegaard pushed on, second) after all he did in that Tour. It proved that the Tour is about being as fresh as possible until the end, and Vingegaard obviously was still fresh as a daisy, while WvA was totally worn out, and when he said in interviews lately people shouldn't expect the same in this Tour as in 2022, he clearly realizes that his season was over because of how he rode in that Tour. He still had nice results but he obviously struggled to find peak form.
 
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Just finished. I thought it was actually very well done. I like how it followed different storylines to give people personal narratives to follow. I mainly would have liked more for Pogacar to have been featured. He’s obviously more compelling than Vingegaard. He was great as always. Jasper Disaster was a standout feature.

Also, @Logic-is-your-friend I hate to tell you but Wout, Vingegaard, and the TJV manager all confirmed that Vingegaard allowed Wout to win that ITT.
And i hate to tell you that Van Aert was going to win that TT regardless of what Vingegaard wanted or didn't want. If you want to keep discussing this with me, please first make sure you know what you are talking about. Look at the actual stage again. Then look at the split times. And pay attention to the moment Vingegaard was still going all out and nearly crashed in the downhill. Vingegaard started the TT fast and had a gap at T1, and was slower in every next section, losing time to Van Aert. The moment he nearly crashed, he was already 6 seconds behind Van Aert and the split times showed he was even slower on the penultimate climb than Van Aert. So he was losing time ever since T1, he wasn't holding back (or he wouldn't be taking risks downhill), he wasn't climbing faster, and he was already 6s in the red BEFORE he "allowed Van Aert to win".
 
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And i hate to tell you that Van Aert was going to win that TT regardless of what Vingegaard wanted or didn't want. If you want to keep discussing this with me, please first make sure you know what you are talking about. Look at the actual stage again. Then look at the split times. And pay attention to the moment Vingegaard was still going all out and nearly crashed in the downhill. Vingegaard started the TT fast and had a gap at T1, and was slower in every next section, losing time to Van Aert. The moment he nearly crashed, he was already 6 seconds behind Van Aert and the split times showed he was even slower on the penultimate climb than Van Aert. So he was losing time ever since T1, he wasn't holding back (or he wouldn't be taking risks downhill), he wasn't climbing faster, and he was already 6s in the red BEFORE he "allowed Van Aert to win".
you do you