The penultimate stage of the race was held as a circuit race around Porto Sant'Elpidio, with an itinerary of 209 km being held over two separate circuits. Firstly, the riders completed two laps of a circuit 91.2 km in length – 3.2 km were covered in the neutral zone before the real start of the stage – before the peloton turned onto another circuit, this time 29.8 km in length, towards the stage finish back along the Adriatic coast. On each lap, the riders had to ascent a climb in Sant'Elpidio a Mare; on the first two laps, the climb was 3 km long and averaging 6.1%, while on the final lap, it was a more gradual 2.9% after approaching from a different direction. These figures were dwarfed in comparison to the maximum gradient of the climb, listed by race organisers as reaching 27%.