Career
Born in Taldykorgan, Almaty Province, Kivilev began his amateur racing career in Spain, before moving to France, where he wore the EC Saint-Etienne jersey. In 1993, he had a successful Regio-Tour as part of a successful tour for the Kazakh team: Kivilev won the points competition; team mate Alexandre Vinokourov won the combined competition; and the team won the team competition. He secured a professional contract with Festina in 1998 and rode with them until the end of 1999. Kivilev had a modest time at Festina, where his best results were fifth at the Championship of Zurich and seventh at the Critérium International. Despite his lack of professional victories, Kivilev attracted admirers for his riding style, and despite interest from US Postal Service, signed with Ag2r Prévoyance in 2000, before moving to Cofidis in 2001. It was at Cofidis that his career started to take off: in his first season, not only did he win the Route du Sud and stage five of the Dauphiné Libéré race, between Romans-sur-Isère and Grenoble, but also had a sensational performance in the Tour de France. Having lost over eighteen minutes on a windswept and attritional stage 4 between Huy and Verdun, Kivilev was allowed to form part of a fourteen man breakaway on stage 8 between Colmar and Pontarlier and gained 33 minutes on the race favourites. Kivilev was an able climber, and limited his losses on the big hills. His time trialling let him down when he lost a podium place to Joseba Beloki on the final time trial. Nevertheless, Kivilev finished the tour in 4th position. In fact, with later doping scandals eliminating those ahead of him on the podium, the French newspaper Le Monde retroactively (and unofficially) named Kivilev winner of the 2001 Tour de France.
Read more about this topic: Andrey Kivilev
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