There’s a certain last day of school energy as the Tour de France has hit Nice. The race has almost reached its end, and after weeks in training camps and racing around a country, the riders are pretty amped to be done. With the Mediterranean glimmering next to the team buses, a sequence of partners and children arrive to meet their loved ones. At Uno-X, Søren Wærenskjold’s girlfriend eavesdrops on another TV2 interview. At Jayco-AlUla, Luke Durbridge lifts his child up in a warm embrace. At EF Education-Easypost, Neilson Powless’s wife and child are there to see dad in his adopted hometown. Ben Healy’s mum and dad walk up and he emerges for a hug. And then his partner Martha walks in with their dog, Olive, and the show is comprehensively stolen.
Olive is a little sausage dog, one year old and extensively floppy of ear and legs. Healy, after almost three weeks of racing, is obviously quite happy to see both her and Martha, and among the hubbub of the stage start he stood there a while, talking to his family and gently rubbing Olive’s enormous ears between his fingers.
I liked the cut of Olive’s jib – her confident strut, her mottled coat, her glacier-meltwater-eyes. We have met other dogs in our time at this race – intimidating bomb dogs included – but with Olive it felt only right to extend the Friendship Tour one last time to meet another 11/10, A++ doggo of the peloton.
Iain Treloar: I assume this is the famous Olive. How is she enjoying her Tour de France?
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