A first chance for the sprinters in the field awaited the riders during the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España. On the relatively flat remaining 25 kilometres, the final became a duel between the lead-out trains.

In the end, Orica-GreenEdge proved itself to be the best-coordinated team and Michael Matthews was the sprinter with the most acceleration in the final meters. NetApp-Endura's Daniel Schorn attained 14th place in the stage; a total of seven of the nine NetApp-Endura riders passed the finish line in the main bunch. As expected, this did not change anything in the general classification.

"Actually, our plan today was to be part of the breakaway group; this unfortunately didn't happen, so that we completely concentrated on the final sprint. Zak Dempster, Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss made a great effort, trying to put Daniel Schorn in the right position. While we are not satisfied with 14^th place, each of our riders gave it his best shot, and we still have a few possibilities to try again. The stage profile was somewhat deceptive on paper; despite the flat sections, it was actually slightly up and down the whole day. Although this did not include any steep slope like the one on yesterday's stage, the climbs were nonetheless very long, which took its toll on the riders, also taking the previous days into account", said Sport Director Enrico Poitschke after the race.

After only eight kilometres, five breakaway riders made their move on this relatively flat stage, which nonetheless included two third category mountain classifications. The main field was saving its energy for the final sprint, so that the breakaways were able to build up a lead of almost 10 minutes. The route first ascended to Alto do Covelo and then took an 11-kilometre climb to Alto de Padornelo. The tempo was stepped up and the breakaways' lead rapidly shrunk, before they were caught just 2.5 kilometres before the finish. Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge), Maximiliano Richeze (Lampre-Merida) and Gianni Meersmann (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) fought it out in the last kilometre, in which Matthews ultimately proved to be fastest rider.