Unfounded 'doping rumors' about Vingegaard, too many crashes, and almost no screen time for Van der Poel: Is Netflix a hit or miss?

For the second year in a row, the American streaming giant Netflix was at the Tour de France to create a series about the world's most famous cycling race. Like the first season, the second series has stirred up quite a bit of dust since its release last week. IDLProCycling.com outlines—without giving too much away—what to expect from each team followed and what stood out.

Visma | Lease a Bike (formerly Jumbo-Visma), like last season, was one of the teams followed. The Dutch outfit had previously released an Amazon documentary series that largely overlaps with this Netflix series. Once again, we're in the team car experiencing all the doubt, emotion, and joy that comes with the Tour de France.

A notable aspect is the seemingly baseless doping insinuations made by, among others, Steve Chainel in the series. Team boss Richard Plugge hit back at the French with the now well-known beer comments about Groupama-FDJ, which were also highlighted from both sides in the series. Marc Madiot did not find it amusing at all, calling his Dutch counterpart sad and pitiful, but Plugge remained cool under pressure.

Tadej Pogacar collaborated with the Netflix series for its first season, and that provided some extra flair to it, although on the sports front, there was little new when it came to the Slovenian's performance and statements in last year's Tour de France.

Interestingly, similar to fellow competitor Jasper Philipsen, Netflix visited him at home and had Pogacar and his fiancée Urska Zigart speak rehearsed lines in English to each other, which was quite cringe-inducing for the average cycling fan.

INEOS Grenadiers also featured as one of the main subjects, providing some interesting insights. Tom Pidcock reiterated his desire to carve his own path in the next Tour de France, but the Netflix documentary shows he was already doing this last year.

Regardless of what team director Steve Cummings said or proposed, Pidcock wanted to do his own thing. It's fortunate that co-leader Carlos Rodriguez didn’t make a fuss and that the team won two stages, otherwise the storylines could have turned out quite differently...

For the non-cycling viewer, the death of Gino Mäder in this series might seem quite touching, but in reality, Netflix exploited the tragic passing of the Bahrain Victorious cyclist for its own gain. Although Mäder's tribute was appropriately handled, it was juxtaposed with numerous exaggerated crash scenes and phrases like "you need to take risks to win."

The low point was such commentary by Chainel during the time trial, accompanied by footage of a crash involving two DSM riders who were not competing in the standings and a trivial fall due to a shifting error by Coquard. Thankfully, Bahrain Victorious riders Pello Bilbao and Matej Mohoric will likely bring the right attitude into viewers' homes, so respect to those guys.

At BORA-hansgrohe, they lived in two different worlds during the last Tour de France: Jai Hindley’s general classification ambitions and sprinting champion Jordi Meeus. The team wasn’t shown much on screen, but with two stage wins and briefly wearing the yellow jersey, team manager Ralph Denk managed to capture a great moment handing out water bottles.

Notably, several comments by Rolf Aldag pointed out that "other teams have more budget," making it nearly impossible to compete. It will be interesting to see how he views this in a few months...

The man with undeniably the most minutes on screen is - except for the big two - Ben O'Connor, whose ups and downs were beautifully captured by Netflix's camera crews. From the moment he learned during training that his former buddy Mäder had passed away to the difficult and beautiful moments at the Tour, everything was real.

The emotions of team managers Julien Jurdie and Vincent Lavenu added depth, offering insights that felt less awkward than the 2022 edition, where language barriers caused some uncomfortable moments. This time, a stage win by Felix Gall and several strong performances by O'Connor provided a satisfying conclusion.

The previously mentioned feud between Marc Madiot and Richard Plugge was a central theme for Groupama-FDJ. After hearing his Dutch counterpart's remarks, Madiot, just days before the Tour’s end, used them as motivation for his rider for the upcoming stage.

Ultimately, after a challenging Tour, Madiot concluded that he had given the French public one last hurrah with their hero, Thibaut Pinot, which was valuable in its own right. However, the witch hunt against anything yellow and black in the Vosges, following L'Equipe’s beer comments, was a low point. "Thanks, Richard," was sarcastically uttered in Jumbo-Visma's team car.

From a Dutch perspective, Mathieu van der Poel's participation prior to last year's World Championships in Glasgow was of course very interesting, but on a global scale it was not thought of in the same way. The classics rider himself didn't win any prizes in the Tour and thus barely got any minutes in the documentary series, unlike teammate Jasper Philipsen.

On the bus, though, jokester Van der Poel was on full display with his laughter, while the mood of the entire team was of course upbeat. Jasper Disaster became Jasper The Master, and despite some awkwardness we logically saw proud smiles from the Roodhooft brothers after the multiple stage wins and green jersey.

Soudal Quick-Step also received a fair amount of screen time, thanks to three men: Fabio Jakobsen, who crashed in the opening week; fan-favorite Julian Alaphilippe; and the man who turned the Tour de France into a success for the Belgian team in the final week, Danish powerhouse Kasper Asgreen.

Jakobsen was visibly in pain as his wounds were treated, while Alaphilippe, to the annoyance of team manager Lefevere, was once again drawn into discussing back-and-forth remarks. Asgreen brought back smiles with his strong performances in the final days.

If you want to watch a lot of EF Education-EasyPost, one episode is enough. Richard Carapaz suffered a serious knee injury on the opening day of the Tour, abruptly ending the team’s storyline in the series. It was a tough break for the Americans, who, through team manager Jonathan Vaughters, often discussed the financial aspects of the sport.

Thus, the hype surrounding Carapaz as the main challenger fizzled out, but such is the Tour: 2024 offers new grand tour, new opportunities.

What applied to EF Education-EasyPost was also true for Mark Cavendish’s Astana Qazaqstan Team. Cavendish's quest for his coveted 35th stage win was worthy of a standalone Netflix documentary, but he also featured in this new season of the Tour series.

For the Brit, the Tour de France ended in an ambulance, according to the series, but cycling fans know better: he’ll be back at the end of June.