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. 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. 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. 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. After Kivilev's death, the UCI made the wearing of helmets compulsory. ==Major results==