Legal headaches for Armstrong could worsen

An admission by Lance Armstrong that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career could create new legal headaches for the former seven-time Tour de France champion, according to legal experts.The US Justice Department, which abandoned a two-year criminal probe into Armstrong last year without bringing charges, could decide to take a fresh look after any admission, though experts deemed that unlikely.But several civil lawsuits, including a federal whistleblower case filed by former team-mate Floyd Landis, would be bolstered by the Texan’s admission, they said.“On one side of the ledger are the legal consequences and the financial exposure, and on the other side are the public relations consequences,” said Geoffrey Rapp, a law professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio. “I think he’s made the decision that the value of his name, and salvaging something from that, exceeds the legal costs.”Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned from cycling after the US anti-doping agency, USADA, issued a damning report in October detailing reams of evidence that Armstrong had masterminded a sophisticated doping ring for himself and his team-mates.Agencies

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Legal headaches for Armstrong could worsen