“Hear me out. Gallery idea: Dogs of the Tour de France.”
My on-a-whim message to our editor Peter was sent almost entirely as a joke, but when the response came, my time at the race changed for the better.
“Love it,” it said. But I had to clarify. “You know I’ll do it. Be careful about joking.”
We settled on an agreement. “I will photograph the dogs I see,” – caveating that I’d do that anyway so it was no extra work – “and if I see one wearing a cycling jersey, a cap, or something else novelty, we run the gallery.”
If ever you thought there was a deep thought process behind deciding absolutely every single one of the features we choose to write here at Cyclingnews, the harsh truth is that we’re all just a bunch of normal people – cycling fans – writing for the most part about what we love. You probably already know I love talking about tech – see the Tour de France tech gallery for evidence of that – but I also love dogs; I have two of my own. If you asked me for an honest hierarchy of things I’ve seen here at the Tour, the riders are roughly third, the tech is second. Dogs sit at the top. Always.
Given the terms of our agreement, you can imagine my elation when, at the start of stage 2, Adam Yates‘ dog Zoe strutted off the UAE Team Emirates bus wearing one of his yellow jerseys and a matching neckerchief. This was more than just a novelty piece of cycling kit, it was the real yellow jersey. I didn’t even paws to seek confirmation; the gallery was a go.
Pulse racing, I grabbed my camera, dropped to Zoe’s level and pressed the shutter not once, but 37 times. Most of the photos, like the moment in itself, were a blur, but a few came good. Zoe was a natural in front of the camera, heading straight in for a boop.
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