On 5 July Lance Armstrong, the US cyclist who has just won his sixth Tour de France, failed in his application in the French Court of Appeal for an emergency order to force a French publisher to insert a denial into a book containing doping allegations against him. The book, entitled ‘LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong’ and co-written by Irish journalist David Walsh, contains allegations from Armstrong’s former assistant, Emma O’Reilly, that he gave her syringes to dispose of and asked her for makeup to conceal the needle marks on his arms. Armstrong denies the allegations. The book was deliberately only published in France where the libel laws are regarded as more liberal than anywhere else. Armstrong claimed the book was defamatory while its publisher claimed that it it merely presented information to the public who could then make up their own minds on the validity of Armstrong’s acheivements. The Court of Appeal held that accusations contained in the book "did not necessarily constitute defamation" because French law exempts from prosecution certain allegations made in good faith or which later turn out to be true. Armstrong was ordered him to pay the publisher’s legal costs as well as a €1,500 fine and a symbolic one euro in damages to the publishers for an abuse of process.