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The Giro began with a team time trial in the city that served as Italy's first federal capital, Turin. The  squad won this stage, making their rider Marco Pinotti the first wearer of the race leader's pink jersey. That team's focus the next day was not to defend Pinotti's race lead, but to try to deliver their star sprinter Mark Cavendish to the victory, which would have the indirect effect of him overtaking Pinotti for the pink jersey. Cavendish indeed became the new race leader, but after an awkward final sprint it was not he but Italian Alessandro Petacchi who won the day. David Millar then became the third race leader in as many days when he finished with a breakaway group that was 21 seconds the better of the main field in stage 3, though this result was obviously overshadowed by the death of Wouter Weylandt earlier in the stage.

After the procession on day four, the fourth stage to be competitively run featured yet another new race leader. On the dirt roads of Tuscany, which had provided for one of the more spectacular stages in the 2010 Giro d'Italia, Dutch rider Pieter Weening won the stage with an 8-second time gap against the field. That, coupled with the 20-second time bonus for winning the day, gave him the pink jersey. There was some stability in the overall standings at this point, as the race's top riders finished together, or nearly so, in the next three stages.

Stage 9 was the first major mountain stage, featuring two ascents of Mount Etna, including a summit finish. It was on this day that strong overall favorite Alberto Contador first seized control of the race. Just after 's José Rujano attacked out of the leading group on the road on the way up to Etna for the last time, Contador did likewise. Rujano struggled mightily to hold Contador's wheel and no one else came close to reaching the pair. Contador won the stage, his first Giro stage win despite having won the Italian Grand Tour in 2008, and immediately attained a minute's advantage in the overall classification. In his five previous Grand Tour wins, Contador had never lost the race lead after taking it, but he had also never taken it so early on in the race. As teams who have riders with a legitimate chance to win a race overall will generally try to avoid defending the lead for too many days, lest they tire their support riders out early and leave their leader vulnerable, there was speculation that Contador may tactically relinquish the jersey. The Spaniard himself hinted that such a move may be in his plans. This would be likeliest to happen in the heavily undulating stage 11. The breakaway group for this stage was hard-fought and late-forming, since someone from its number could potentially become the new race leader. While 's Christophe Le Mével, who entered the day third overall and had on two other occasions come within a time bonus of claiming the jersey, made the group, neither he nor anyone in it was destined to take pink. Largely under the impetus of Michele Scarponi's  team, the breakaway group was caught before the finish. Contador and the rest of the overall favorites finished at the front of the race, with riders well down in the standings claiming the time bonuses, meaning Contador retained the race leadership after all.

Contador took the most time against the main field out of any day in stage 13. On this day, which ended at the Grossglockner in Austria, he and Rujano again finished well ahead of the main field. As they approached the finish line, Contador did not attempt to sprint for the win, seemingly content to allow Rujano to take it. Their minute and a half time gap, plus the time bonus for second place, gave Contador a lead of over three minutes in the overall standings. Only in the 2009 Tour de France had he ever held a larger lead. The next two days were extremely difficult high mountain stages, both won by members of the  team. Contador finished the best of any rider in the top five overall on both days, and so further padded his advantage. Wearing a black armband to memorialize fellow Spanish cyclist Xavier Tondó who, though not a participant in the race, had passed away while it was run, Contador dominantly won the stage 16 uphill individual time trial. This result put him nearly five minutes clear of the next-best rider, the largest such advantage he had ever held in any race. In stage 19, Contador again finished with another rider ahead of the main field. This time it was 's Paolo Tiralongo, a former teammate of Contador's. Just as he had with Rujano earlier, Contador appeared to allow his companion a stage win he could have easily taken himself. Contador later commented that the victory, the first of Tiralongo's 12-year career, was meant as a gesture of thanks to the Italian for all the support riding he did for him in 2010 when the two were on the same squad. Although Contador claimed that he was not going to give his strongest effort in the stage 21 individual time trial, the Giro's final stage, his ride was still good enough for third place, extending his winning margin to over six minutes, giving him his sixth and statistically most dominant Grand Tour championship. Contador's two stage wins and numerous top five placings also made him the winner of the points competition, by a substantial margin. Michele Scarponi and Vincenzo Nibali completed the podium, in that order, having targeted one another once it became obvious that Contador's advantage was insurmountable. Nibali held second place on stages 13 and 14, but Scarponi overtook him on Gardeccia, finishing a minute and a half better (only six seconds the lesser of Contador), and never relinquished second place. Stefano Garzelli was in the breakaway on the Gardeccia stage and took maximum points on three of the day's five climbs, and second place points on the other two. It was largely thanks to this performance that he won the mountains classification at the end of the race. Roman Kreuziger, still eligible by a matter of months, won the youth competition with his ride to sixth place overall.

On the whole, success proved to be fairly widespread. As did Contador, Cavendish won two stages, stages 10 and 12, but prior to Cavendish's second victory no team, let alone individual rider, had won two individual stages. Four other teams – , , , and  – eventually repeated as stage winners.  won the ill-fated stage 3 with Ángel Vicioso and later stage 13 with Rujano. 's wins came on the two most difficult stages in the race, the back-to-back high mountain stages that preceded the second rest day. Their leader Igor Antón won the controversy-laden day ending at Monte Zoncolan, when the Monte Crostis climb was removed from the route. Mikel Nieve the next day won the stage that Contador described as the hardest of his life, a seven and a half hour day with five high climbs ending at Gardeccia. Following Petacchi's win in the contentious sprint that finished the first road stage, the  team took another stage win with young Diego Ulissi in stage 17, after another contentious sprint in which Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti actually crossed the line first but was relegated to third for shoving Ulissi. The  had winners in stage 6 with Francisco Ventoso on an uphill sprint and in the Giro's last road race stage with Vasil Kiryienka in a solo breakaway that finished almost five minutes better than the rest of the field. , , , , , , and  each won a single stage. With 's Garzelli claiming the mountains classification and Yaroslav Popovych from  the Trofeo Fuga Pinarello, it could be said that 15 of the 22 teams that completed the race came away with some sort of victory.

Much like had occurred at the final podium celebrations for the 2009 Tour de France, the wrong national anthem was played for Contador. Race organizers mistakenly played an old Spanish anthem with lyrics favored by former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The Spanish national anthem as it should have been played would have been purely instrumental.