Episode 1
The Grand Départ
Almost a year since the Tour de France 2022 concluded, its dramatised episodic version has landed. As an athletic spectacle we already know what will unfold over the next eight episodes – what I expect this binge to deliver is a caricatured version of the world’s biggest bike race: the Tour de France, for want of more appropriate language, on steroids.
The principle limitation of Unchained, you may be aware, is that only certain teams have agreed to participate. It should come as no surprise that two of them belong to a couple of the loudest mouths in the business. Neither EF Education–EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters, nor Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl head honcho Patrick Lefevere is the peloton’s Mr Popular, but they’re solid choices as talking heads. Both have high hopes for the opening weekend. Vaughters is banking on his young TT specialist Stefan Bissegger, who is seen honing his position in a wind tunnel. He has been working towards this opening stage all year, we’re told. Might that time have been better spent learning to corner in the rain? As Bissegger tumbles twice on wet road markings, Vaughters ask us to believe this is a rider going up to and over the limit.
