The 1970 Giro d'Italia was the 53rd edition of the Giro, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race consisted of 20 stages, starting in San Pellegrino Terme on 18 May and finishing Bolzano on 7 June. There was one time trial stage and a single rest day. Eddy Merckx of the Faemino team won the overall general classification, his second victory. Italians Felice Gimondi (Salvarani) placed second, 3 min and 14 s slower than Merckx, and Martin Van Den Bossche (Molteni) was third, nearly five minutes behind Merckx. Teams A total of 13 teams were invited to participate in the 1970 Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, so the Giro began with a peloton of 130 cyclists. Out of the 130 riders that started this edition of the Giro d'Italia, a total of 97 riders made it to the finish in Bolzano. The teams that took part in the race were: Pre-race favorites The starting peloton did feature the previous year's winner Felice Gimondi (Salvarani). Despite an initial unwillingness to participate relating to his expulsion the year before, Eddy Merckx chose to enter the race after the race organizers agreed to send all doping controls to Rome rather than conduct them in a van that moved with the race. Merckx entered as the primary favorite to win the race. He entered the race having already won several races that season including: Paris–Nice, Paris–Roubaix, and La Flèche Wallonne, among others. Le Confédéré felt that Merckx's greatest challenge would come not from Italian riders, but the Belgian Walter Godefroot (Salvarani). Godefroot was thought to be the leader for the Salvarani team as Gimondi entered the race in poor form. Gianni Motta was absent from the race as he was recovering from a knee operation earlier in the season. Route and stages The route was revealed on 31 March 1970 by race director Vincenzo Torriani. The race covered across twenty stages and one rest day. Compared to the previous edition, the 1970 edition was shorter and included only four stages longer than with stage 14 being the longest at . In April, the route was announced to have nineteen categorized climbs that awarded points towards the mountains classification, while the final route included seven more categorized climbs. In total, were climbed. San Pellegrino Terme hosted the race's start and then it travelled west, visiting the Alps before turning south