Stage three saw the complete rewriting of the general classification at the Tour of Turkey, as the riders faced the first true mountain stage in the history of the event.  For the organizers, it was almost a dream result, with Ivaïlo Gabrovski, racing for the local Konya Torku Seker Spor - Vivelo squad winning the stage decisively and taking the leader's jersey.  SpiderTech's Will Routley had a very strong ride also, finishing tenth in the stage and moving up to tenth in the GC.

The 153 kilometre stage from the coastal town of Antalya to a final climb outside of the town of Elmali featured three categorized climbs - a Category 2 followed by two Category 1's - but it was the final climb that changed the race.  This was a true mountain climb, topping out at 1850 metres after a long, switchback climb on narrow, rough roads.

A break of five went clear roughly 25 kilometres into the stage - Bandiera (OPQS), Hurel (Europcar), Vachon (Bretagne-Schuller), Domagalski (Caja Rural) and Giordani (Farnese Vini).  They built up a gap of over five minutes by the 60 kilometre mark.  This was clearly as far as the peloton were willing to let them go, and the chase was led by Astana, who were looking to set up their climber, Alexsandr Dyachenko.

The last of the breakaways were caught before the base of the final climb, and at that point it became a race of attrition.  Gabrovski, a Bulgarian, did not have the look of a skinny climber, but he powered his way clear of a chase group by the halfway point of the climb, and was cheered on by every Turk on the climb.

Dyachenko took second at 1:29, with another Bulgarian rider, Danail Petrov (Caja Rural) finishing third, at 1:32.  Routley was still passing riders in the final 1500 metres to finish 2:55 behind Gabrovski.  The top ten riders on the stage took the same spots in the revised GC, with former leader Matt Goss (GreenEdge) dropping to 71st, over 15 minutes back.