Reigning champion Roberto Visentini returned to the race in 1987 to defend his crown, despite not winning many races in his spring campaign. Francesco Moser, who won in 1984 and finished in the top three in 1985 and 1986, did not participate because of a head trauma and bruises sustained in a crash in the weeks prior to the race. Spanish sports newspaper "El Mundo Deportivo" and Gian Paolo Ormezzano from Italy's "La Stampa" named several other riders as contenders for the overall classification, such as Giuseppe Saronni, then-world champion Moreno Argentin, Stephen Roche, and Robert Millar. Since team leader Greg LeMond did not participate in the race due to injuries sustained in a , "El Mundo Deportivo" believed Jean-François Bernard to be a dark horse. "L'Unità" writer Gino Sala believed Roche, Saronni, and Visentini were the top three challengers for the overall crown.