"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.
Brother Simon has a dog too, a miniature poodle called Tinker, which is much smaller and presumably much less of a floof. I'm told the pair are friends, and they love to play together, but unfortunately for me and this feature, Tinker was at home in Andorra, away from the crowds.
But at this point, the feature was officially happening, so I could no longer just passively photograph dogs that I saw, I needed to seek them out. Luckily, Adam isn't the only rider with a four-legged friend here at the race. Fellow Briton Tom Pidcock's Daschund Chestnut is also here, chaperoned by Tom's girlfriend Beth.
Sadly I didn't manage to speak with Chestnut before she and Beth left the race, but here she is in all her glory.
It wasn't until stage 3 that I started telling my fellow journalists in the press room of my upcoming feature. The freedom of stepping away from the Tour de France journalistic machine is infectious, and others were keen to help.
Fast forward to 5km to go on that same day, a sprint stage which Jasper Philipsen won. Dozens of my peers and I were standing at the Jumbo-Visma bus watching the finale on the small television screen. "That's Sepp Kuss' dog," came a whisper from one of them, pointing to the Toy Poodle over my right shoulder.
To their amusement given the fast-approaching finish, I stepped away from the television, missing around two of those final five kilometers, to introduce myself.
At this point, I have papped the pups of three pro riders, but let's not forget that amid the search, I was also photographing the very good dogs that I spotted while roaming the paddocks. Here are the ones that managed to sit still long enough for a photo.
