The 3,292-kilometre (2,046 mi) race consisted of 20 stages, starting in San Pellegrino Terme on 18 May and finishing Bolzano on 7 June.

[3] The teams that took part in the race were:[2][4] The starting peloton did feature the previous year's winner Felice Gimondi (Salvarani).

[3] Le Confédéré felt that Merckx's greatest challenge would come not from Italian riders, but the Belgian Walter Godefroot (Salvarani).

[11] San Pellegrino Terme hosted the race's start and then it travelled west, visiting the Alps before turning south and then east towards Treviso.

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

[18] Before the start of the 1970, Termozeta replaced Dreher Brewery as the sponsor of the points classification and so the color of the leader's jersey changed from red to cyclamen.

[20] In addition there was the Cima Coppi, the Passo Pordoi, which was the highest mountain crossed in this edition of the race, which gave 200, 100, 80, 70, and 50 points to the first five riders summit the climb.