He will no longer challenge drug charges brought against him by the US Anti-Doping Agency, refusing the option to defend himself in public or private arbitration. Said Armstrong on Friday: "There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough'. For me, that time is now."

USADA said it will hit Armstrong with a lifetime ban on Friday. Assuming there is no further resistance from the International Cycling Union (UCI) or the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which runs the Tour de France, he will be stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles.

It brings to an end a saga that has been running, on and off, for around 12 years.

Or, more accurately, it brings an end to the saga in one arena and shifts it to another. Because despite what he says, Armstrong is not done fighting.

Legally, he is very nearly out of options. His case disputing USADA's right to charge him was this week tossed out by a US federal court. Judge Sam Sparks dismissed Armstrong's case, ruling that USADA's arbitration can continue.

Armstrong knows that by refusing arbitration, he has invited USADA to issue a lifetime ban. By refusing arbitration, he has effectively waived his right to appeal USADA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

So, he will be banned, and his titles will almost certainly be stripped (the cleanest outcome here will be for the seven Tour de France titles to be annulled rather than redistributed).

But Friday's statement makes clear that Armstrong plans to shift his fight to the court of public opinion.

Repeating an argument he has maintained since USADA announced it would bring charges, he called the investigation “a charade” and repeated that it was an "unconstitutional witch hunt".

Not contesting the charges, he said, was not admitting guilt but refusing to "participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair”. You can read Armstrong's full statement here.

From the procedural point of view, this is only bluster. Having failed to stop the case in the US court system and having refused to participate in the anti-doping process, he is bound to accept USADA's charges and the subsequent ban.

But public support is another matter. Comments on message boards and elsewhere demonstrate Armstrong still enjoys plenty of goodwill. Many fans believe he is being victimised by USADA. On Friday afternoon one poster on this website expressed a common view: "USADA will take the word of people who have been proven cheats, proven to not play by the rules, to condemn a man who has passed every legal test coming his way".

For Armstrong, his hero status in the eyes of many thousands is what he will now fight to preserve. Until the evidence is laid out, and perhaps even after that, diehard fans will continue to consider him a champion wronged by the system.

That will not, of course, matter to USADA, and for many other cycling fans Friday will stand as one very important milestone in the sport's effort to clean up its dirty past. But so far as Armstrong is concerned he is not done yet.

We've seen him look beaten before.

The week in …
… breakups

Oh Wiggindish, we hardly knew ye. Is it all over so soon?

In retrospect, the signs were there at the Tour de France. By Stage 7, eventual winner Wiggins was already in the maillot jaune. And here's the world champion and world's greatest sprinter during the same stage, schlepping bidons like a common water carrier.

Forced to win his three 2012 Tour stages almost single-handedly, Cavendish was again left helpless at the Olympics road race in London, his teammates unable to reel in the breakaway.

Wiggins, Olympic time-trial and Tour champion, said this week: "On a personal level I have enjoyed riding with him this year and I enjoy his company but I understand why he would probably have to leave … At Sky we have set a precedent now. If we are going to dominate cycling and win three Grand Tours in a year, we have to start building to that GC thing.

"Unfortunately for Mark, as we saw in the Tour, the two don't really go well together."

Wiggins, it is understood, will get custody of Chris Froome.

... villainy

Tuesday's pile-up at the Vuelta a Espana recalled the headiest days of Chaingate, when Alberto Contador villainously/reasonably (pick one) declined to wait for Andy Schleck, and entire towns were powered by the heat subsequently generated on internet messageboards.

Tuesday's crash came inside the final 30km, just as Sky was forming echelons in an attempt to break the race open in crosswinds.

Adam Hansen, on his way to becoming the 31st man in history to complete all three Grand Tours in the same calendar year, wasn't happy.

I don't mind Team Sky putting it in the gutter, but how about next time you don't slam us in the gutter. I'm going for an X Ray....

— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) August 21, 2012

Alejandro Valverde, even less so. Valverde dropped from first to ninth in general classification after being caught up in the crash. After crossing the finish line with a face like a wet afternoon he marched to the Sky bus, where The Broom Wagon dearly wishes it could have been a fly on the wall to watch Valverde stomping up and down the aisle and demanding to have his satisfaction.

Valverde twattled afterwards in a tone we can presumably take to be sarcasm: "Gracias @TeamSky".

"Everybody Is free to behave the way he wants to," he continued, randomly deploying capital letters like a boss. "But after provoking the crash you should not attack. This is not fair."

Of the eight ex-pros interviewed by Spanish newspaper AS, seven said that Sky did not cause the crash and was within its rights to keep the hammer down in the closing kilometres.

Here's Orica-GreenEDGE's backstage video of Simon Clarke's win in the same stage, the team's first in the Tour of Spain. It's a ripper.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

Happy and proud to be again in the Pro Peloton next year, and we will be a great team - take my word for it!!

— Jens Voigt (@thejensie) August 22, 2012

I'd really like to compliment myself on not littering. My ability to hold trash and empty bottles is among the best in the big leagues.

— Ted King (@iamtedking) August 21, 2012

Todays stage made me feel like the Curiosity Rover.... NASA could have saved a coin or two send Curiosity to this part of Spain.....

— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) August 19, 2012

Classic YouTube

It's not clear whether Andrew Dickey's tongue is in cheek when he claims this clip features a tour of Melbourne's cultural icons. Still, replace 'cultural icons' with 'freeway art installations' and you've still got a clip that furthers Dickey's claims to be Australia's answer to Danny MacAskill.