With two stage victories, the yellow jersey for four days and the green jersey since the second stage, Wout van Aert has already had the opportunity to stand on the podium many times during this Tour de France. And the most attentive spectators will have noticed that on several occasions, the Belgian appeared with a strange device attached to his cap.
Asked about this by a journalist from VTM, Wout van Aert replied laconically: “It’s a microphone, so ‘they’ can know the questions you ask me.” By this “they”, the Belgian designates Netflix, as he confirmed on the set of the program “Vive le Vélo”, on the VRT. The streaming platform will produce a documentary series on the Tour de France this year. Like what has already been done in Formula 1 with “Drive To Survive”, Netflix teams follow eight teams during the Big Loop. “We are followed from within”explained the green jersey of the Tour.“Netflix wants to know what I’m talking about after the stages. It’s pretty handy for me because that way it doesn’t creep up on me.”
If we were able to see Van Aert with this microphone, this is not the case with Tadej Pogacar for example. The team of the double title holder refused to be followed by the Netflix teams during this Tour de France. In addition to the Jumbo team, the eight teams monitored are AG2R-Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers and Quick Step.
The final result is expected in early 2023.