Francesco Casagrande

He was a proven performer in the Grand Tours and the major one-day races. He wore the leader’s jersey into the penultimate stage of the 2000 Giro d'Italia, but faltered badly and wound up 2nd to fellow Italian Stefano Garzelli. Casagrande did, however, win the mountains classification, wearing the corresponding green jersey on the podium.

In major one-day races, he has won the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1998 and 1999, followed by the 2000 editions of the La Flèche Wallonne and Subida a Urkiola. Also in 1999, he placed 4th in the World Cycling Championships Road Race behind Óscar Freire, Markus Zberg, and Jean-Cyril Robin.

In his early career, Casagrande won the 1996 Tirreno–Adriatico and Tour of the Basque Country — both one-week stage races. In 1998, Casagrande tested positive for doping with testosterone during the Tour de Romandie, and consequently was fired by his team Cofidis. He was originally given a six-month sentence, later extended to nine months by the UCI. He returned to racing at the 1999 Tour de Suisse, a race that he won, taking the leader's jersey away from Laurent Jalabert on stage 9. Casagrande also scored victories at the 2001 and 2002 Giro del Trentino and the 2002 Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale Coppi-Bartali. In the 2002 Giro d'Italia, Casagrande was expelled from the race, after knocking down another cyclist. In 2003, Casagrande won two mountain stages in the Tour de Suisse, but lost the leader's jersey in the penultimate day's time trial to Alexander Vinokourov. He was unable to start the last stage due to urethritis. Casagrande was barred from competing in the 2004 Vuelta a España a day before its start due to a high hematocrit level, indicating the use of erythropoietin (EPO), a popular doping product. In 2005, Casagrande retired.

Francesco Casagrande (born 14 September 1970 in Florence) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist. Casagrande was a professional cyclist between 1992 and 2005.