On 11 July 1935, whilst descending from Lautaret, near Rioupéroux, the Spaniard Francisco Cepeda fell and hit his head. He died three days later, on 14 July, a public holiday in France; he was the first cyclist to die during a race. A forgotten story

The third-place play-off is the match nobody wants to play. France and England, powers that for centuries have vied for control of oceans and territories across the globe, find themselves chasing a medal that, in football, is worth next to nothing

The national team cannot afford prestigious apprenticeships, friend-and-favourite pickings or nostalgia-driven moves. Guardiola is the dream, Mancini is the memory, Pirlo is the gamble. Antonio Conte is the solution. The call is not merely to choose him. It is to convince him, for once, not to behave like Conte

The Belgian sprinter from Soudal–Quick-Step won the third stage of this Tour de France in Chalon-sur-Saône. Just a stone’s throw from the Canal du Centre and the unfulfilled dream of engineer Émiland Gauthey, Pedersen, Simmons, Asgren and Skujiņš tried to give the Grande Boucle a different kind of finish. They, too, failed to do so

The protégés of Joachim Löw, World Cup winner in Brazil and architect of the national team’s revolution. The darkest summer for the new prophets, who aren’t even new anymore

Anyone who thinks that with so many star players on the pitch, the manager is almost superfluous should watch the semi-final from the other night again. The England manager’s misjudgement and the cloying rhetoric about Argentina

In the final stage of the World Cup, the gymnast won silver in the ball event and bronze in the all-around. She will be heading to the World Championships in Frankfurt (12–16 August) “trying not to put any pressure on myself. In the gym, I only work on what I can control; everything depends on my concentration – the rest is out of my hands”

The Argentine national team beat England 1–2. First Enzo Fernández and then Lautaro Martínez converted the passes from Lionel Messi into goals. The England manager, however, played his part in losing the semi-final

For an American audience accustomed to quantifying everything, it was ideal. However, exceptional ability alone is insufficient: Haaland went viral because he did not appear to be crafting a flawless celebrity image

The unpredictability of performance is one of the few positive aspects remaining in a sport that the FIFA president is attempting in every way to undermine. The good news is that the new rules introduced at this World Cup have been an embarrassing flop