The 3,567-kilometre (2,216 mi) race consisted of 20 stages and an opening prologue, starting in Lecce on 20 May and finishing at the Vigorelli velodrome in Milan on 10 June.

Gösta Pettersson of the Ferretti team won the overall general classification, becoming the first Swedish rider to win a Grand Tour.

[3] Ultimately, Lévitian requested the team to pay extra money, on top of the 25,000 franc entry fee, to participate in the Tour.

[10][6] Instead, he would focus solely on preparing for the upcoming Tour de France, which he hoped to win for the third consecutive year.

[10] An El Mundo Deportivo writer felt Merckx's absence opened the race for other riders to win.

[6] Molteni's riders Marino Basso and Romano Tumellero were thought to give the team enough support in the absence of Merckx.

[6] Italo Zilioli, Franco Bitossi, Gösta Pettersson, Patrick Sercu, and Michele Dancelli were other riders that were thought to be contenders for the overall victory.

[14][15][16] The start of the race was announced to be in Lecce after the officials of the city paid 20 million lira to the organization to earn the honor.

[18] When writing about this stage's format 44 years later, rider Renato Laghi commented "Torriani was forever having strange ideas.

[17] Five-time champion Alfredo Binda said "Only a climber can win it and it will remain uncertain until Ponte di Legno.

"[11] The race started at 1:45 PM local time in front of the Piazza Sant'Oronzo,[4] it was estimated that 200,000 people watched along the course.

[24] As rain started to hit the course, Marinus Wagtmans (Molteni) won the second traguardi tricolori sprint of the leg, ahead of Attilio Rota (Dreher).

[26] Race leader Claudio Michelotto held on to the back of a team car to finish the climb and was given a one-minute penalty.

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

[29] In addition there was the Cima Coppi, the Grossglockner, 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.