Tour de France: Unchained: Season 1 premiered last week on Netflix. The new show follows eight teams and their team leaders in an eight part docuseries, offering a thrilling ride into the world of professional cycling.

Produced by the same crew behind the Netflix hit Drive to Survive, the series is a chain of emotional narratives that weave the athletes’ ambitions, failures, and triumphs, sometimes juxtaposed against team goals and tactics, in pursuit of the coveted yellow jersey in the 2022 Tour de France.

The series whets cycling fans’ appetite just in time for the 110th edition of the Tour de France, which is starting in a little over two weeks. The 2023 Tour will depart on July 1, 2023 in Bilbao, Spain and run through July 23,2023.

All of the pro-cycling teams featured in the Netflix show will be on deck to race for the podium again. Teams EF Education-EasyPost, Ag2r Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Groupama-FDJ, Jumbo-Visma, Bora-Hansgrohe, Ineos Grenadiers, and Soudal-Quick-Step (previously Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) have announced their rider lineup.

Which stars of the Netflix Tour de France series are expected to be in the 2023 Tour de France?

According to their respective teams, series favourites Fabio Jakobsen, Jasper Philipsen, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, David Gaudu, Jonas Vingegaard, Thibaut Pinot and Thomas Pidcock will all be in the 2023 Tour de France peloton.

Tadej Pogačar, two time Tour de France winner, is mentioned in the series however he is not one of the stars because his team, UAE Team Emirates, opted not to participate according to a VeloNews interview.

Which Tour de France:Unchained stars will not be lining up for the Tour in July?

Primož Roglič will not be at the Tour this year after taking the top spot at Giro d’Italia a couple of weeks ago.

Jumbo-Visma Sportive Director Merijn Zeeman told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “I’m going to leave Primoz alone for now. Before the season we penciled in that he would also ride the Vuelta[a Espana], so that is certainly a viable option. Primoz would also really like to ride and win Il Lombardy. He certainly has those qualities.”

Geraint Thomas, 36, finished third in the Tour last year however the Ineos Grenadiers rider opted not to clip in at this year’s Tour in what could possibly be his last year racing. Thomas is dubbed an “older rider” in the series. “You were in high school before Jonas and Pogačar were born,” read a text Thomas received during the series[from his wife! – Ed].

 

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Thomas competed in the Giro d’Italia and finished second behind Roglič in one of the smallest finishing gaps in history. “I’m slowly getting back into training after the Giro,” Thomas posted on Instagram.

Season Two of Tour de France:Unchained is on the way

As these riders prepare to line up, Netflix cameras will be rolling—the series was green lit for a second time and renewed before the first season was even available to viewers in the U.S. Details have not been released yet about which teams or riders will be featured in the second instalment.

Though UAE Team Emirates sat out the first time around fans may get an opportunity to learn more about Pogačar in season two.

UAE Team Emirates CEO Andrea Agostini told VeloNews in 2022 that the documentary was not a priority for the team partly because an external film crew would complicate the logistics of the Tour.

Despite this concern, he left open the possibility that the team may participate in the future. “Maybe in the future, if Netflix leaves the door open for us, then we could jump in.”