Tadej Pogacar, UAE Team Emirates to star in season 2 of Netflix's Tour de France Unchained
Having rejected the chance to feature in the first episode of Netflix's documentary series Tour de France Unchained, two-time Tour champion Tadej Poga?ar and his UAE Team Emirates team will star in the second season.
Earlier in this year's Tour the team had denied that they would feature in the next season, based on the ongoing race. However, they are now set to join Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) in striking a deal with series producers Quadbox to appear.
Earlier in the Tour, Cyclingnews learned that Cavendish's team had agreed a deal to be a part of series two as the British sprinter sought to win a record-breaking 35th stage win during what was set to be his final Tour.
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Now, Poga?ar and UAE Team Emirates will also be featuring, with a clip shared on the team's social media teasing filmed interviews and camera footage from the team car, which is set to form part of the second season.
Poga?ar and his team indirectly featured in season one via racing footage and were set to do so again, though earlier in the race Quadbox didn't rule out their participation in the next season, set to be released in the summer of 2024.
The agreement struck between the team and the producers is understood to be separate from the main deal encompassing the eight teams which starred in season one – Jumbo-Visma, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal-QuickStep, Ineos Grenadiers, Groupama-FDJ, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe and AG2R Citro?n.
All eight are signed up to feature in season two, while Cyclingnews understands that Lidl-Trek and Jayco-AlUla were keen to take part before the same eight teams from season one committed.
Netflix funded the reported production costs for the series to the tune of €8 million. The eight teams involved shared €500,000, giving each team €62,000 ($67,000), while Tour de France organiser ASO and host broadcaster France Télévisions took €250,000 each.
The first eight-episode season of the show was released on June 8. Netflix is said to be happy with the early viewing figures for series one of Tour de France: Unchained and confirmed series two just before this year's race started in Bilbao.