Cycling: Armstrong facing Italian trial for defamation

ROME (Reuters) - Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will go on trial for defamation next year after losing a preliminary hearing against Italian rider Filippo Simeoni on Wednesday.

Italian judge Nicola Insiti decided American Armstrong should go on trial in Simeoni's home town of Latina near Rome on March 7 after he called Simeoni a liar in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde in 2003.

Simeoni had given evidence in 2002 during the trial of Armstrong's former coach Michele Ferrari and said Ferrari had given him doping substances.