Andre Greipel says he feared he’d been boxed in before powering through to win the 189.5km Tour de France fifth stage.

Greipel surged past Mark Cavendish and Alexander Kristoff before holding off Peter Sagan, who finished like a bullet, to win his second stage of this year’s Tour and his eighth in total on Wednesday.

But he said there was a moment when he thought he might be trapped and the chance would have gone.

• Tour de France stage to honour Anzacs 
• The bike tools every cyclist should own

“I think it was quite an interesting sprint as none of the sprinters had a real leadout man in the last 400 metres, so everybody had to time their sprint somehow and find the right position,” said the 32-year-old German.

“I thought the sprint was finished for me but I managed to find space to get out and launch my sprint. I thought it was a really interesting sprint.

“I was just looking for the gap, I knew the right side would be blocked and I was just focusing on the left side to get out.”

Sagan finished so fast that 10 metres beyond the line he was already well ahead of Greipel, but he said he just started his sprint from too far back.

Last year Sagan had the entire Cannondale team working for him, this year he is a domestique for Alberto Contador at Tinkoff-Saxo and is only let off the leash at the end of stages to challenge for the win.

“I was too far back in the last 100 metres and I was just a little bit late but overall it was good,” he said.

“It’s hard to beat Greipel and I’m happy with my second place.”

Meanwhile, race leader Tony Martin said he didn’t get a chance to enjoy his first ever day in yellow as he couldn’t sleep the night before.

The 30-year-old German won Tuesday’s fourth stage and relieved 2013 champion Chris Froome of the yellow jersey.

“I couldn’t really sleep so well, I fell asleep maybe at two o’clock in the morning. I woke up early again but it was ok for me.

What looked on paper to be a relatively calm stage was anything but with several crashes taking place – knocking New Zealand’s Jack Bauer and Nacer Bouhanni of France out of the race while Swiss rider Michael Albasini pulled out after it with a fractured left arm.

“It was incredible, everyone thought today was going to be the relaxing day of the Tour but the wind and rain made it anything but relaxing,” said Tejay Van Garderen, who remained third over all at 25 seconds from Martin, with Froome second at 12 seconds.