The second and third places were taken by Swede Tommy Prim and Italian Giuseppe Saronni, respectively.

[2] Each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 130 cyclists.

[3][4][5] The teams entering the race were: The route for the 1981 edition of the Giro d'Italia was revealed to the public by head organizer Vincenzo Torriani on 21 February 1981.

[6][7][8][9] Covering a total of 3,895.6 km (2,420.6 mi), it included four time trials (three individual and one for teams), and ten stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification points.

In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists.

With his Giro victory, Battaglin completed the Vuelta–Giro double, the second rider to achieve the feat (Eddy Merckx was the first in 1973).

[16] Only 48 days separated the Vuelta's start on 21 April from the Giro's end on 7 June.