Sylvain Georges (Ag2r) bounced back from health problems with a strong 2nd place in today's Paris-Camembert. The defeat was another near-miss for the French team but the team was happy to see their young talent back to this best.

Neoprofessional delivered one of the most memorable performances in the 2012 cycling season when he by an enormous effort held off a very strong field to win the Big Bear Lake stage in the Tour of California. Totally exhausted, he fell to the ground after taking his first win as a professional.

Since then the young Frenchman has struggled with health problems and has been unable to produce the same kind of results but today's 2nd place in a very hard Paris-Camembert behind a strong Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ) proves that his woes are now behind him. In a challenging final, it was Georges' acceleration on the day's final climb with 10km to go that drew clear the successful quartet of Fedrigo, Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Julien Antomarchi (La Pomme Marseille) and the Ag2r rider himself.

After a very aggressive race in which the day's early break was established after more than 70km remaining, the Ag2r team were always among the protagonists and even though the result was the team's 11th 2nd place of the season, sports director Stephane Goubert was satisfied.

"It was another difficult day with rain and wind," he said. "The race was very fast and there have been many attacks from the start. AG2R La Mondiale has always been represented in these attacks, with either Julian (Kern, ed.), Sam (Samuel Dumoulin, ed.), Sylvain (Georges, ed.) and Guillaume (Bonnafond, ed.). The final circuit was hard and tortuous. Mikael (Cherel, ed.) attacked 22 kilometers from the finish and escaped with a small group before being caught by the peloton. Sylvain then accelerated on the Mur in Champeaux and was joined by three riders."

"The victory was played out between the four men and Sylvain took 2nd place, beaten in the sprint by Pierrick Fedrigo," he continued. "As usual we saw a unified AG2R La Mondiale team. Our riders have done nothing wrong but they are once again narrowly lost out. This is still a very good result for Sylvain who has had some health problems and he was up against some very good riders."

Today's race was the fourth in the season-long Coupe de France. With Georges' 2nd place and Samuel Dumoulin's 8th, the team is now 2nd behind FDJ in the team's standings.