28/05/2024

Tadej Pogacar's recovery from wrist fracture headlines season 2 of Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained

After the roaring success of season one of Netflix's Tour de France: Unchained documentary about the 2022 edition of the race, a second season will soon be dropping on the platform (June 11th) and we now know that this time around, Tadej Pogacar will be heavily featured.

The UAE Team Emirates leader was noticeable by his absence from the first season. In a trailer released by Netflix on social media however, both the Slovenian and his partner, Urska Zigart can be seen doing talking head interviews, reflecting on the trials and tribulations of the 2023 Tour de France as Pogacar battled hard to get fit for the Grand Tour following a fractured wrist after a crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, only to once again come up short against Jonas Vingegaard.

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"2022 I gave everything that I could but in the end, Jonas was better," Pogacar says before Liv Jayco AlUla Zigart joins the conversation. "It wasn't the easiest because it was like this realisation, 'oh, I am not the best anymore,'" she adds. "But then it brought back the hunger that he really wants to prove that he's the best again. Now Jonas is the number one guy and you're the one who has to attack him."

"This year we have a really super strong team and I feel better coming into the first part of the season than any other year and then yeh I crashed in Liège," Pogacar recalls. "It was a really nasty crash, I am lucky that I only fractured my wrist. I am still not 100%, the scaphoid is still fractured but I will never give up. Now I start a little bit different training, I try to bounce back and you need to push yourself because the Tour de France is the Tour de France. Everybody comes here in top shape."

This year, the roles are reversed as Pogacar enters the Tour in top form and Vingegaard is the one fighting hard to recover in time from a nasty crash that he suffered at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year. If the Dane makes it back in time for the Tour, chapter four in the epic Pogacar vs Vingegaard rivalry awaits next month.