The race was won by Gino Bartali of the Legnano team, with fellow Italians Fausto Coppi and Vito Ortelli coming in second and third respectively.

[3] Coppi started the season in great form and won the Milan–San Remo by over fourteen minutes after riding nearly the whole race alone.

[3] Tensions between the two riders elevated after May's Züri-Metzgete, where Bartali asked Coppi to help him to the finish and, if so, he would not contest the race to the line.

[3][6] Mario Ricci, Adolfo Leoni, Aldo Bini, and Glauco Servadei also received consideration as riders to win the opening stage.

[7] A main concern of race organizers was the date of the Italian elections, which was announced to be on 2 June by the Council of Ministers.

[15] To avoid overlapping with the election, on 13 March the event was announced, and that it would start on 15 June and end on 7 July.

[16] The route was viewed to be largely symbolic in nature as it visited sites that were related to events from the First and Second World Wars like Trento, Bassano del Grappa, and Piave.

[19] After the race had started, on 22 June, the Allied Military Command announced that the originally planned finish in Trieste would be allowed.

[21] The race jury released a statement stated that an unexpected event happened where stones were thrown at riders, along with nails and other obstacles being placed in the road.

[22] After a long pause in action, the riders continued to race to Trieste's finish, in the Montebello hippodrome for the stage victory.

[22] The leader of the general classification – calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider – wore a pink jersey.