The race came to a close with a 119 km (73.9 mi) mass-start road stage that stretched from Albese con Cassano to Milan.

[3] Having previously won the general classification in 2002, Savoldelli became the nineteenth rider to repeat as winner of the Giro d'Italia.

[9][17] However, due to very poor weather conditions the start was moved to Villa di Tirano, and the stage was shortened to 154 km (96 mi).

[4] After the last competing rider took the course, famed sprinter Mario Cipollini took the course for a final farewell after announcing his retirement ten days beforehand.

[5] The second stage ended in another sprint finish, which Robbie McEwen won and also saw him take the race lead.

[19] Stage 3 saw a breakaway go the distance as a group of fifty riders broke free about 30 km (18.6 mi) from the finish.

[20] Liquigas-Bianchi's Danilo Di Luca lunged ahead of Damiano Cunego to win the stage, while the race lead fell back into Bettini's hands.

[21] However, Bettini was later disqualified after the judges saw that he caused fellow sprinter Baden Cooke to fall, which gave the stage victory to second-place finisher Luca Mazzanti.

[22] Danilo Di Luca regained the lead of the race as the time gaps widened due to the climb that was placed shortly before the finish.

[22] Stage eight was a 45 km (28 mi) individual time trial that was won by American David Zabriskie.

[23] Alessandro Petacchi won the next stage by means of a bunch sprint, while the general classification remained largely unaltered.

[10] Ivan Basso attacked with 26 km (16 mi) remaining in the stage and only Paolo Savoldelli was able to keep pace with him.

[2] Paolo Savoldelli claimed the overall lead after Ivan Basso lost over a minute as he was suffering from a gastric problem.

[27] Ivan Basso lost even more time due to his illness, while general classification contenders Danilo Di Luca and Gilberto Simoni gained valuable seconds over the race leader Paolo Savoldelli.

[28] Christophe Le Mével out-sprinted his fellow breakaway members to win the stage and earn his first professional victory.

[29] Team CSC's Ivan Basso won the stage by nine seconds over Russian Vladimir Karpets.

[15] However, on the final climb of the Sestriere he received aid from two riders and made it to the finish two minutes after the stage winner José Rujano.

[15] The twentieth and final stage of the 2005 Giro d'Italia came ended with a bunch sprint in the streets of Milan.

[1] Italian Alessandro Petacchi edged out Erik Zabel and Robert Förster to win the stage.

[5] Liberty Seguros-Würth rider Koldo Gil won stage 7 by means of a long breakaway.

Other awards included the Combativity classification, which was a compilation of points gained for position on crossing intermediate sprints, mountain passes and stage finishes.

[32] Fassa Bortolo and T-Mobile Team were most successful in avoiding penalties, and so shared leadership of the Fair Play classification.