[2] Mads Pedersen was the defending champion,[3] but he did not compete in the race.

For the first time since 1997,[4] a French male rider won the rainbow jersey as Julian Alaphilippe attacked on the final climb of the Cima Gallisterna; he managed to hold off a chasing group of five riders by 24 seconds to take victory at the finish line, at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

The men's road race lapped the course nine times, making a total of 258.2 kilometres (160.4 mi).

[7] Qualification was based mainly on the UCI World Ranking by nations as of 17 March 2020.

[1] However, Alexey Lutsenko was forced to withdraw from the race after testing positive for COVID-19, while Nikias Arndt and Natnael Berhane also did not start.