There are way too many series to watch these days… anyone who tries to keep up with all the Marvel movies might feel my pain. But there’s one series I don’t like to miss, and that’s “Inside the Beehive” by Visma Lease-a-Bike. What’s up with these YouTube documentaries? Let’s rank the best of the best… and the one that doesn’t quite make the cut.
What is “Inside the Beehive”?
“Inside the Beehive” is a series of YouTube documentaries released by Visma Lease-a-Bike highlighting important events or seasons for the men’s and women’s cycling teams. Each show typically focuses on a specific period or race, like the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia. The films run from 30 minutes to 1 hour in length. You can find the full playlist here.
Disclaimer: I am not a Visma Lease-a-Bike superfan by any means. However, there’s just something about these documentaries that hits the right notes. Fans of the super team will notice tonal similarities between “Inside the Beehive” and the team’s Amazon Prime show, “All-In Team Jumbo Visma.” Both use similar filming strategies and focus on riders’ personal journeys alongside the action and results from individual races. The end result focuses much more closely on the emotional ramifications of a win or loss rather than the practical ones.
What’s up with the name? For the uninitiated, Visma Lease-a-Bike has leaned more heavily on the bee branding in recent years, especially in changing their sponsor name from Jumbo-Visma to Visma Lease-a-Bike. The idea comes from the bright yellow of their jerseys. And the team takes it pretty far: this year, their Tour de France jersey was called “The Swarm” and featured quite a few bee puns in the promotion.
Read more: 6 YouTube Cycling Documentaries That Will Satisfy Your Wanderlust
So… what’s the catch?
There are some things I don’t like about “Inside the Beehive,” and other fans might feel the same.
Of course, any documentary produced by a team is going to have a heavy dose of bias towards that team, and “Inside the Beehive” is no exception. Each episode feels more like a promotional trailer for the team rather than taking a more critical lens like Netflix.
Still, fans of Unchained will find plenty to chew on here. Visma Lease-a-Bike’s filming team does a fantastic job of showing up for the important moments, and the show manages to limit some of the “cheesiness” that’s inherent in the genre. Still, there’s a decent serving of saccharine platitudes in place of actual information and objective reality. If that bothers you, this series is not for you. Viewers might find themselves taking a deeper look at the races featured after watching, curious about how these events happened outside of Visma Lease-a-Bike’s sanitized version.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhich is the best “Inside the Beehive”? Ranking all episodes currently released.
New episodes of “Inside the Beehive” are still coming out, with the most recent being released in spring of 2025. There are currently five episodes, and they are not chronological, meaning they do not need to be watched in any specific order.
However, some are slightly better than others. So here’s my list of which episodes to check out first!
1. A TRUE RENAISSANCE: Our Tour de France 2024
The Tour de France is the biggest cycling spectacle of the year, and consequently, the Tour de France episode of “Inside the Beehive” is just as bombastic. Still, the producers do a great job of bringing a touching story to the forefront: Jonas Vingegaard’s return to form after a nearly season-ending crash several months before the Tour start.
Read more: 22 Photos (and Stories) from the 2024 Tour de France
Fans of Visma Lease-a-Bike’s riders will see many of their favorites featured here. Matteo Jorgenson stands out, marking his transition from a team newcomers to seemingly one of the core guys on the squad. The one-on-one interviews with both Vingegaard and Wout van Aert paint them as great athletes doing their best to put forward a great Tour performance against the odds. This episode is a heartfelt one, with emotional beats that will hit for folks who watched the 2024 Tour de France live as well as general fans of Visma Lease-a-Bike.
2. Our Spring Classics: A Wingbeat Away From Victory
Big highs, big lows. For all the dominance of Visma Lease-a-Bike over the past few years, one of their best spotlights ends up being a series of races that went wrong. The realities of the 2025 spring classics seasons brings a touch of humility to the squad and results in a surprisingly good story for this episode.
We follow Wout van Aert and his classics squad as they aim for — and fall just short of — victory. For anyone who remembers the Dwars door Vlaanderen mishap, it’s interesting to hear the strategy behind it. What’s more, the team doesn’t back down from admitting the mistake. Ultimately, the members of the team come across quite well here, and you might find yourself rooting for them to have a better outcome in 2026’s classics season.
3. THE POWER OF ORANGE: Our green-tinted Tour de France Femmes 2024
This episode clocks in at the shortest released so far, at just under 30 minutes. This is a disservice to the story of the Tour de France Femmes, which still manages to bring some of the best storytelling among “Inside the Beehive” installments so far.
The 2024 TDFF started in Rotterdam, a special occasion for a Dutch team. But even more so, the show is a love letter to Marianne Vos, one of the most outstanding cyclists in the world. If you don’t follow women’s cycling closely, you’re in for a treat… but you also are if you do! As with other episodes, the documentary touches on both the highs and the lows and will hit a lot of emotional notes for viewers.
4. The Spring Classics: ROAD TO RESILIENCE
The very first installment of “Inside the Beehive” also turns out to be one of the saddest, and that’s why it’s so low on this list. For fans of Wout van Aert, this is probably a must-watch. It will just leave you a little brokenhearted along the way.
In this episode, the team rallies after Wout’s crash in Dwars Door Vlaanderen to claim a few victories in the spring classics. It’s nice to see wins for Jorgenson and Tratnik along with learning how they felt about the outcomes. The team spirit appears to be on full display, despite that sadder tone to the episode, there is still some hope under the surface, too. Watching this knowing that Vingegaard’s crash is still to come later in the season brings some interesting (if sad) hindsight. Recommend with caution based on your tolerance for sad stories.
5. NEVER LOSE HOPE: Our Giro Story
Truthfully, this is where “Inside the Beehive” turns the corner from being good to mediocre. The 2024 Giro was sort of… well, a whole lot of nothing for Visma Lease-a-Bike. The riders come across as charming and heartfelt as usual, especially Olav Kooij and Cian Uijtdebroeks, two young talents for the team that it’s nice to see more of. Gesink and Tratnik also shine in supporting roles. However, it’s hard to shake the feeling that there isn’t a lot going on through the race, and racing action is somewhat limited.
Viewers of the 2024 Giro will remember Tadej Pogacar’s dominant stint in the pink jersey. Somehow, Visma Lease-a-Bike manages to make themselves still feel like an afterthought… even in their own documentary. This is really the only one to miss, but for Visma Lease-a-Bike fans, it’s still worth a viewing.
Is “Inside the Beehive” worth watching?
For me, the answer is a resounding yes. Many episodes of this series, despite being a little too team-sponsored at times, will tug at the heartstrings. If you liked other behind-the-scenes content like Netflix’s Unchained, this is frankly perfect (free!) content for you to get your fix.
And how does “Inside the Beehive” stack up to other Visma Lease-a-Bike material? While “All-In” is only available in certain areas, which limits its audience somewhat, these documentaries certainly match other Jumbo-Visma content from years past. They are very similar to “Plan B,” which covers their 2021 Tour de France campaign.
Read more: 8 Late-Season Races to Cure Your Post-Tour de France Blues
At the same time, is it possible that Visma Lease-a-Bike is setting their own standard too high? After Simon Yates’s surprise Giro d’Italia victory, the team released a shorter video outside of their “Inside the Beehive” label and playlist. It makes one ask whether the team is only filming when they are certain something interesting will happen, and how many exciting wins or twists they could miss due to not having their camera crew on standby.
On that note: did they film the 2025 Tour de France? Or was it not sure to be interesting enough? While it seems like an event that would surely merit a full episode, we’ll just have to wait for a future release.
Embed from Getty ImagesHave you watched any of Visma Lease-a-Bike’s documentaries? Let us know your favorites — or even which ones you didn’t like at all! — in the comments or on social media! ★
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