Amateur Career At Espoir Cycliste St-Etienne Loire
In the winter of 1996, Gilles Mas, directeur sportif of the Agrigel-La Creuse team, received a letter from the coach of the Kazakhstani national team, inquiring about the possibility of placing six Kazakhstani cyclists in European professional teams. Mas agreed to take-on the best two, but only on condition they first rode for the amateur Espoir Cycliste Saint-Etienne Loire (ECSEL) clube for a year. Mas and Pierre Rivory of ECSEL chose Andrey Mizurov and Vinokourov.
Vinokourov arrived in France on 22 March 1997, after a sub-par performance due to illness in the Tour de Langkawi as a member of Kazakhstan's national team. While Vino readily adapted to Europe, Mizurov – who had won the inaugural time trial in the 1997 Tour de Langkawi – struggled with homesickness and contemplated a return to Kazakhstan. Ultimately, in May 1997, Mizurov was replaced by Vinokourov's former classmate Andrei Kivilev, who was then racing with an amateur team in Burgos in Spain after having placed 29th in the previous year's Olympic road race. Mizurov would later turn professional in 1999 with Collstrop-De Federale Verzekeringen, and he reunited with Vinokourov in 2007 at Astana.
Vinokourov came second in a stage of the Tour of Auvergne two weeks after he arrived in Europe, and was best climber in a Coupe de France race a week later. Then, during a trial for the Casino professional team at the Tour of Saône et Loire, Vino won three of the four stages. In total, Vinokourov would win ten races for his amateur club, leading Vincent Lavenu to offer him a two-year professional contract to ride for Casino in 1998–1999.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Vinokourov
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