Thirteen of the fourteen teams invited to the 1979 Giro d'Italia participated in the race. Kas were forced to decline their invitation, in favor of racing the Vuelta a España, by the Spanish Federation which wanted the "best Hispanic" peloton to be competing in Vuelta that year. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 130 cyclists. From the riders that began this edition, 111 made it to the finish in Milan. The teams entering the race were:
The route was unveiled on 22 March 1979. Covering a total of, it included five individual time trials, and nine stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification points. 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 less stage.
Classification leadership
There were four main individual classifications contested in the 1979 Giro d'Italia, as well as a team competition. Four of them awarded jerseys to their leaders. The general classification was the most important and was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered the overall winner of the Giro. The rider leading the classification wore a pink jersey to signify the classification's leadership. The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing in the top positions in a stage finish, with first place getting the most points, and lower placings getting successively fewer points. The rider leading this classification wore a purple jersey. The mountains classification was the third classification and its leader was denoted by the green jersey. In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists. Each climb was ranked as either first, second or third category, with more points available for higher category climbs. Most stages of the race included one or more categorized climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The Cima Coppi, the race's highest point of elevation, awarded more points than the other first category climbs. The Cima Coppi for this Giro was the Passo Pordoi, which was first crossed by Italian rider Leonardo Natale. The fourth classification, the young rider classification, was decided the same way as the general classification, but exclusive to neo-professional cyclists. The leader of the classification wore a white jersey. In addition, the rider had to be aged 24 and younger. The final classification, the team classification, awarded no jersey to its leaders. This was calculated by adding together points earned by each rider on the team during each stage through the intermediate sprints, the categorized climbs, stage finishes, etc. The team with the most points led the classification. There were other minor classifications within the race, including the Campionato delle Regioni classification. The leader wore a blue jersey with colored vertical stripes. The Fiat Ritmo classification, which was created in honor Juan Manuel Santisteban who died in stage 1A of 1976 edition. In all stages longer than, there was a banner at that point in the stage to designate a special sprint. The winner of the sprint in each stage received a Fiat Ritmo.
