Paris ? An appeals court Friday rejected Lance Armstrong’s attempt to force a publisher to insert the cycling standout’s denial of doping allegations into copies of a new book.

Armstrong filed an appeal last week after a lower court rejected his bid to force his publisher La Martiniere to insert a rebuttal into “L.A. Confidential, the Secrets of Lance Armstrong.”

The appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision in its verdict Friday — a day before the start of this year’s Tour de France, where Armstrong is going for a sixth straight win.

The judge who made the lower court ruling June 21 said Armstrong’s request was an abuse of the legal system, and ordered him to pay a symbolic $1.20 fine.

The French-language book, which hit French bookstores two weeks ago, was written by David Walsh and Pierre Ballester and relies in part on allegations by a former Armstrong assistant, Emma O’Reilly.

In it, she claims Armstrong once asked her to get rid of used syringes and give him makeup to conceal needle marks on his right arm.

Armstrong has denounced the book’s claims as “absolutely untrue.”