Is there any limit to what the body can do?

Has the world gone mad? There’s Beauden Barrett, the world’s best stand-off, and rugby player of the year seemingly by right, missing a shedload of kickable goals from easy distances to gift an enthralling game to the Springboks. But don’t read too much into it you Twickers types. The All Blacks played at relentlessly high speed, made innumerable handling errors and even took a quick line-out straight to the only Springbok for miles around. They still only lost by a couple of points. I can’t see it happening again. Then the beloved Pumas beat Australia on the Gold Coast and stopped the Rugby Championship becoming a procession.

And there’s Simon Yates winning the Spanish Vuelta, the first time in history that all three Grand Tours have been won by different cyclists from the same country. Yes, Britain. Just think for a moment: before Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012, no British rider had come anywhere near winning a Grand Tour.