During the race, Alessandro Petacchi tested positive for elevated levels of salbutamol at a doping control on 23 May, after winning Stage 11.

[1] Petacchi has a medical exemption to use salbutamol in the treatment of asthma, but the concentration of the drug in his urine sample from this control was above the therapeutically accepted level.

The 22 teams who took part in the race were:[3] In the months leading up to the Giro, headlines centered on defending champion Ivan Basso.

[5] Days later, Basso appeared to be cleared of any connection to Puerto, as the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) shelved his case,[6] and he signed with Discovery Channel.

[7][8] He rode part of the 2007 season with Discovery, and had intended to seek overall victory both in this Giro and in the 2007 Tour de France with his new team.

[6] Facing further investigations into his involvement with the doping ring, team Discovery asked him to stop racing late in April.

[16] Four former Giro winners started this race – Damiano Cunego, Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni, and Stefano Garzelli – and they were expected to be among the favorites.

They, along with countrymen Mario Cipollini and Baden Cooke, had had a back-and-forth rivalry for sprinting supremacy that had gone back several years[18] but had been stunted in 2006 when Petacchi missed most of the season, including all but the first three stages of the Giro, due to a fractured kneecap sustained from a crash.

[9] Other fast men in the race noted to be contenders in the flat stages included two-time points classification winner Bettini,[17] Danilo Napolitano, and Graeme Brown.

[16] Race director Angelo Zomegnan commented that the route was designed to be easier than that of the extremely climbing-intensive 2006 Giro.

The riders transferred by plane while the Giro caravan, race officials and team cars made the trip by boat.

Though the summit of this climb was lesser than some other peaks visited in the race, at 1,730 m (5,680 ft), its gradients were crushing, with the steepest stretches reaching over 20% incline.

Since Pinotti started the day better-placed in the overall classification and became the new race leader because of their time gap over the peloton, he allowed Laverde to take the stage win.

The race's overall contenders showed themselves on this stage, with Leonardo Piepoli putting in a decisive attack 5 km (3.1 mi) from the summit of the Santuario Nostra Signora della Guardia to claim victory by 19 seconds over Di Luca.

Pinotti finished more than four minutes back, and surrendered the pink jersey to Di Luca's teammate Andrea Noè, who was tenth on the stage.

Team CSC's Andy Schleck took the white jersey after this stage by finishing third, after Di Luca passed him for second in the final kilometer.

It was also on this stage that Astana's Eddy Mazzoleni distinguished himself as a podium contender, taking a minute and a half out of Di Luca to move into second overall.

Since the climb had personal significance for Simoni, having won a stage there four years earlier, his teammate allowed him to cross the line first.

[40] Di Luca was not seriously challenged after taking the race lead in stage 12, and comfortably won the Giro in Milan with a two-minute gap over Schleck in second.

They took three stage wins, two with Di Luca himself to go along with the race's opening team time trial, and held the pink jersey for all but four days.

[42] Petacchi was obligated as the stage winner to give a urine sample to the doping authorities, and it had a concentration of 1,352 nanograms per milliliter of salbutamol, above the 1,000 allowed by the medical exemption.

[43] Team Milram placed Petacchi on immediate provisional suspension following the Giro, which kept him from participating in the Tour de France later that season as he had planned.

[45] Their decision, however, was not made to exonerate Petacchi, but rather because they did not believe they should hear the case, instead deferring to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Reports emerged in June that three riders were under suspicion of doping, later identified as Petacchi, Leonardo Piepoli, and Iban Mayo.

[53] Mayo was quickly cleared, as further testing revealed that his testosterone levels were of natural origin and that his team Saunier Duval–Prodir had informed the UCI of this.

[42] Though Piepoli's level of salbutamol was, at 1,800 nanograms per milliliter, even higher than Petacchi's,[54] he was cleared by his national federation of any doping charges in August.

[55] Giro champion Danilo Di Luca also gave an irregular doping test, after stage 17 to Monte Zoncolan.

The test, given spontaneously hours after the routine test Di Luca gave for being race leader at the time, reportedly showed hormone levels like "those of a child," causing anti-doping authorities to suspect that Di Luca was using some means to cover the presence of banned substances.

A year after the race, Alessandro Petacchi was stripped of all his results;[2] this table reflects the stages and jersey awards he originally won.