The sports star spent years vehemently denying the cheating allegations which have blighted his career, but recently went public with his confession in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which he admitted taking illicit drugs to win cycling races.
Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and his Olympic bronze medal over the doping scandal, is now facing a lawsuit from fans who bought his 2000 book It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.
The lawsuit, filed at a federal court in California this week (beg21Jan13), names Armstrong and his book publishers as defendants and claims the plaintiffs were duped into buying the book, as well as 2003 follow-up, Every Second Counts.
The readers accuse Armstrong of fraud and false advertising for marketing the books as works of fact, rather than fiction, according to CNN.com.
Among the plaintiffs is Rob Stutzman, who worked as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s deputy chief of staff while he was Governor of California, and claims to have met Armstrong before his doping confession and personally thanked him for writing the “inspiring” book.
The plaintiffs are demanding “statutorily permissible damages, attorneys’ fees, expenses and costs”.
