Most of the 125 riders who started stage 5 in Kalkan were highly motivated for the early skirmishes but the head wind on the magnificent Mediterranean coast prevented them from going clear.

An acceleration by Jakub Danacik (PSK-Whirlpool) and Nazareno Rossi (Serramenti PVC-Diquigiovanni) split the bunch in two parts. Sixty riders formed the first group. The first king of the mountains price at km 36.7 was dominated by the Saunier Duval of José Alberto Benitez who consolidated his lead in this classification as he passed in first position ahead of his team-mates David Cañada and Rubens Bertogliati. Very quickly after that, four riders formed a breakaway: Dries Devenyns (Silence-Lotto), Assan Bazayev (Astana), Gabriele Missaglia (Serramenti PVC-Diquigiovanni) and Matteo Priamo (CSF-Navigare). Ten kilometers further, they were reinforced by Gregory Rast (Astana), Josu Mondelo (Extremadura) and Francesco Reda (NGC Medical).

At the second king of the mountains price (km 57), Priamo preceded Mondelo and Bazayev. The bunch back in one piece was 2.01 behind the seven leaders. Mondelo won the Turkish Beauty Sprint (km 73.8). Milram and Lampre decided to chase with the idea of getting a bunch sprint win for Alessandro Petacchi and Mirco Lorenzetto respectively. The gap went down to 1.22 just 23 kilometers before coming to Finike. It was 1.16 with 13.5km to go but still the same 3km from the finishing line.

Priamo sprinted 150 meters before the line and kept an advantage of one length of a bike over Missaglia. The bunch finished 1.11 behind. Petacchi won the sprint for 8th place. David Garcia Dapena (Karpin-Galicia) stayed in the lead on GC. .