The conditions. You’re going to hear a lot (A. Lot.) about the conditions this week.

Today’s Tuesday in Sweden, tomorrow’s Wednesday – recce day. That’s when the condition chat is really going to ramp up.

I remember standing next to a particularly watery River Klarälven in Karlstad four years ago when the crews started arriving back in service after the first day of recce on the 2016 event.

Kris Meeke stepped out of his white Mitsubishi Lancer, grim faced. It was, he feared, simply not possible to run in those conditions. Up and down the service park, the verdict was the same.

Tomorrow, it will be the same again.

Last Sunday, with Ciara just girding her loins, Scotland and England ran out to play a game of rugby at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

It was, opined my mate, almost impossible to imagine we were going to see any kind of rugby played.

Why? The conditions.

Admittedly, the Calcutta Cup turned into the predictable kicking contest and the conditions were shocking. The wind and the rain turned the game into something of a lottery, but at the same time those conditions provided an opportunity to adapt and find a way through. England did that. Just.

And this week, Sweden provides precisely that same window of opportunity.

Save for an Elsa-style freeze (she’s the Protector of the Enchanted Forest and then the Queen of Arendelle… Frozen, get with the program!), the roads will be horrible this week.

But they’ll be pretty much universally horrible. The winner will be the driver most able to ride their luck, put the conditions to the back of their mind and focus on the task in hand.

The winner will be the driver who makes the most of the opportunity.