The route for the 1981 edition of the Giro d'Italia was revealed to the public by head organizer Vincenzo Torriani on 21 February 1981. Covering a total of , it included four time trials (three individual and one for teams), and ten stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification points. Two of these ten stages had summit finishes: stage 17, to Borno; and stage 20, to Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The organizers chose to include two rest days. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was shorter and contained one more time trial. In addition, this race contained one more set of split stages.