Andrey Kivilev

Born in Taldykorgan, Almaty Province, Kivilev began his amateur racing career in Spain (Cropusa-Burgos), before moving to France, where he wore the EC Saint-Étienne jersey.^[1] In 1993, he had a successful Regio-Tour as part of a successful tour for the Kazakh team: Kivilev won the points competition; teammate Alexander Vinokourov won the combined competition; and the team won the team competition.^[2] 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^[3] and seventh at the Critérium International.^[4] Despite his lack of professional victories, Kivilev attracted admirers for his riding style, and despite interest from US Postal Service,^[5] 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,^[6] 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,^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

Kivilev crashed in the 2003 edition of Paris–Nice. The racer in front of him suffered a mechanical problem right as Kivilev took his hands off his handlebars to adjust his earpiece. He died from the accident.^[11] After Kivilev's death, the UCI made the wearing of helmets compulsory.^[12]