Rick Zabel achieved his best result at the pro level when he sprinted to fifth in stage 2 of the Tour of Britain. Having felt strong with an 800m sprint, the German is optimistic for the upcoming stages.

BMC Racing Team's Rick Zabel matched his best finish of the season with fifth place in the bunch sprint finish that capped Monday's stage of the Friends Life Tour of Britain. Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) took the win and assumed the lead from Marcel Kittel (Team Giant-Shimano) while Zabel's fifth place moved him into 10th place overall, 10 seconds back.

Zabel, who was also fifth on a stage at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah last month, said he initially thought he was too far back to even contest the sprint.

"With one kilometer to go, I was still about 20th position and alone," he said. "But I just started moving up on the right side as fast as I could. I was feeling quite good. When the front guys started their sprint, I was directly on their wheel. I had started my sprint with about 800 meters to go, but still had enough to hold the wheel to the line. So I think this is quite a good result for me. I am looking forward to the next stages."

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Max Sciandri said the overall standings could see another shuffle on Tuesday. The stage finishes with an ascent of one of Great Britain's most feared climbs, The Tumble, on the outskirts of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire. The six-kilometer climb rises 512 meters with an average grade of 10 percent.

"That climb is apparently the hardest stage of the race," Sciandri said. "It is going to be a pretty hard finish tomorrow."