Roche's teammate and defending champion Roberto Visentini took the first race leader's maglia rosa (English: pink jersey) after winning the opening prologue, only to lose it to Breukink the following stage.

Roche successfully defended the overall lead from attacks by Visentini and other general classification contenders until the event's finish in Saint-Vincent.

[10] Francesco Moser, who won in 1984 and finished in the top three in 1985 and 1986, did not participate because of a head trauma and bruises sustained in a crash in the weeks prior to the race.

[1][9][14] Spanish sports newspaper El Mundo Deportivo and Gian Paolo Ormezzano from Italy's La Stampa named several other riders as contenders for the overall classification, such as Giuseppe Saronni, then-world champion Moreno Argentin, Stephen Roche, and Robert Millar.

[1][13] Since Toshiba–Look team leader Greg LeMond did not participate in the race due to injuries sustained in a hunting accident,[15] El Mundo Deportivo believed Jean-François Bernard to be a dark horse.

[9] Climbers Gianbattista Baronchelli, Éric Caritoux, Franco Chioccioli, Marino Lejarreta, and Millar were expected to contend for mountains classification.

[2][3] Several writers felt Argentin, Guido Bontempi, Urs Freuler, Eddy Planckaert, and Paolo Rosola all had a great chance to win a stage in the race.

[1][2][3] Mario Fossati of La Repubblica also thought that Bernard, Bontempi, and Phil Anderson could take a stage win.

[1][13] El Mundo Deportivo stated that Visentini had the edge in the time trial discipline and sprinting, while Roche had the advantage in climbing mountains.

[13] However, unlike Visentini, Roche came into the race in great shape after winning the Tour de Romandie and placing second in the Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Critérium International.

[10] The route for the 1987 edition of the Giro d'Italia was revealed to the public on television by head organizer Vincenzo Torriani on 21 February 1987.

[17][18][19][20] Covering a total of 3,915 km (2,433 mi), it included five time trials (four individual and one for teams),[20] and thirteen stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification points.

[25][27] Race director Torriani was happy with the success the 1985 Giro d'Italia had when passing through the Aosta Valley and chose to include this mountainous region, which lies adjacent to the Rhône-Alpes, in the 1987 route.

Carlo Champvillair, a climbing champion of Aosta Valley, believed it to be a well-constructed, technical race route.

The returning winner of the Giro, Roberto Visentini, won the prologue by two tenths of a second over the Canadian rider Steve Bauer.

Stephen Roche won the time trial half-stage with a three-second margin over Del Tongo's Lech Piasecki.

[35] The leg culminated in a mass sprint that was won by Panasonic–Isostar's Belgian rider Eddy Planckaert, after overcoming Paolo Rosola in the closing meters.

[39][42] Roche's actions, taking the race lead away from Visentini and disobeying team commands, gained him the hatred of the Italian cycling fans.

[44][45] On the descent of the Pordoi Pass, van der Velde broke away and caught up to the leader on the road before winning his second consecutive stage.

[44][48][49] During the nineteenth stage, Jean-François Bernard launched an attack after the leading group finished the climb of the San Marco Pass.

[44][50] Despite a crash within the final kilometer of stage twenty, the main field managed to hold a bunch sprint that was won by Rosola.

[44][51] In the twenty-first leg, the general classification contenders were a part of the same leading group until the final climb to the summit finish in Pila.

[44] Roche beat out the second-place finisher, Dietrich Thurau, by fourteen seconds to win the day and the overall race itself.

[77][78][79] After dropping out of the 1987 edition of the Giro, Visentini did not win any further stages or classifications in major races,[10] and retired from cycling in 1990, at the age of 33.

[80] Mario Fossati, of La Repubblica, thought that van der Velde and Bernard performed very strongly, along with Argentin, who he said was operating on "alternating current".

[10][82] On that day, Roche – who was second in the general classification and over two minutes behind race leader Visentini – attacked the lead, despite orders from his team to stop.

[10][79][84][85][86] Despite Visentini's statement, both riders started the sixteenth stage after receiving orders from Carrera company boss Tito Tachella.

[10][85] In the days that followed, Italian fans threw things and spat at Roche, which led him to receive police protection until the race's conclusion.