'The Tour is a circus and we are the clowns' - Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained to return for final season

Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained will return for its final season on 2 July, it was revealed on Wednesday, along with a trailer for the show.

The final season of the documentary, which takes fans behind-the-scenes at the world's biggest bike race, will cover the 2024 Tour de France, where Tadej Pogačar dominated, winning six stages on his way to overall victory. It is expected there will be eight episodes of this season, as there were for the first two. The programme covers the overall story of the race, as well as individual teams, moments and riders throughout.

In the trailer, there are references to the new era of the super-teams, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe picked out specifically in the opening shots. Pogačar is shown early on, with his teammate Mikkel Bjerg joking that "everything the light touches is Tadej’s kingdom". Mark Cavendish, in his final Tour outing, will be included in the documentary, as well as Jonas Vinegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike, although they are not included much in the trailer.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, meanwhile, are shown as frustrated: "The Tour is a fucking circus and we are the clowns." Rolf Adag, the team's sports director, asks: "Why do we lose our shit on the first day?"

The original season featured Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Visma-Lease a Bike and Soudal Quick-Step, but this has now grown, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG involved, along with Cavendish and his then Astana-Qazaqstan team.

While the series has been popular with fans and has brought cycling to a broader audience, Netflix France decided not to renew it for a fourth season, so there will be no Netflix cameras at the race this year.

In a statement shared with Cycling Weekly in February, a Netflix spokesperson revealed the third season, due to air in June this year, will be the last.

“After three seasons, we are naturally coming to an end of this cycle,” the statement read. “We're very proud of the work we've done and of the public response to the documentary series, which has allowed us to offer a fresh take on this legendary competition.

According to a report in Le Parisien, viewing figures had been weaker than hoped. It is understood that Netflix’s aim with the series was to grow its subscriptions in France, and while figures abroad have been strong, those in France were said to be disappointing.

It was produced as a joint venture between Quadbox and Box to Box Films, the makers of F1: Drive to Survive.