The 1990 Giro d'Italia was the 73rd edition of the race. It started off in Bari on May 18 with a individual time trial. The race came to a close with a mass-start stage that began and ended in Milan on June 6. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by the Italian Gianni Bugno of the Château d'Ax–Salotti team. Second and third respectively were the Frenchman Charly Mottet and the Italian rider, Marco Giovannetti. Bugno wore the pink jersey as leader in the general classification from the first to the last stage (before him, only Girardengo in 1919, Binda in 1927 and Merckx in 1973 achieved the same).
In addition to the general classification, Gianni Bugno also won the points classification. In the race's other classifications, Vladimir Poulnikov of the Alfa Lum–BFB Bruciatori team completed the Giro as the best neo-professional in the general classification, finishing in fourth place overall; rider Claudio Chiappucci won the mountains classification, and rider Phil Anderson won the intergiro classification. finished as the winners of the Trofeo Fast Team classification, ranking each of the twenty-two teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time.
Teams
Twenty-two teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1990 edition of the Giro d'Italia, ten of which were based outside of Italy. The starting riders came from a total of 20 different countries; Italy (89), Spain (24), France (20), Switzerland (12), and the Netherlands (11) all had more than 10 riders. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 198 cyclists. Of these, 92 were riding the Giro d'Italia for the first time. The average age of riders was 26.85 years, ranging from 21–year–old Florido Barale () to 39–year–old Pierino Gavazzi (). The team with the youngest average rider age was (24), while the oldest was (29).
The teams entering the race were:
Pre-race favorites
Reigning champion Laurent Fignon () returned to defend his title and was seen as a favorite to win despite a sub–par Classics season. Marco Giovannetti () who won the Vuelta a España a few weeks prior was seen as a contender. He was seen as one of the better Italian riders with a chance to win the overall, while it was noted that it would be difficult to win the Giro and Vuelta in the same season as only two riders – Eddy Merckx (1973) and Giovanni Battaglin (1981) – had accomplished that prior. Milan–San Remo winner Gianni Bugno () entered the race and writers considered him a contender, others wrote him off as Classics rider. La Repubblica mentioned that he could be the new Francesco Moser. 's Charly Mottet due to his recent victory in the Tour de Romandie also received consideration as a favorite. For the 1990 season, Mottet altered his normal schedule to include the Giro d'Italia and not ride the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré.
Other riders that received attention as contenders were Steven Rooks, Urs Zimmermann, and Gert-Jan Theunisse. Rooks and Theunisse were expected to make their presence known in the final week of racing. Spanish rider Marino Lejaretta () was thought to be the best Spanish rider to make a run during the three weeks. Reigning world road race champion Greg LeMond () entered the race in poor form and without and high placings. IT was reported that LeMond had been recovering from a viral illness two months prior. Polish rider Zenon Jaskuła () was seen as a rider who had a chance to place high.
Twenty–seven year old Adriano Baffi () was thought to be the premier sprinter in the race. The strongest team in the race was thought to be as they had won 26 races before the start of the Giro. Former winner Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado chose not to participate in the Giro in favor of racing the Tour de France. Moreno Argentin and Maurizio Fondriest did not participate either. Mexican Raúl Alcalá () who recently won the Trump Tour chose to ride the Tour over the Giro.
