Alexander Nikolayevich Vinokourov (Kazakh and Russian: ; born 16 September 1973) is a Kazakhstani former professional road bicycle racer and the current general manager of UCI WorldTeam . As a competitor, his achievements include two bronze medals at the World Championships, four stage wins in the Tour de France, four in the Vuelta a España plus the overall title in 2006, two Liège–Bastogne–Liège monuments, one Amstel Gold Race, and the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics Men's Road Race. Vinokourov is a past national champion of Kazakhstan, and a dual-medalist at the Summer Olympics. In 2007, he received a two-year ban from cycling for blood doping. In 2019, he was accused of race fixing by prosecutors in Liège but was later cleared of the charges.
Vinokourov began cycling in 1984 as an 11-year-old, competing within the former Soviet Union. He moved to France in 1997 to finish his amateur career, and then turned professional there in 1998. After almost a decade as a professional, Vinokourov was caught blood doping during the 2007 Tour de France, which triggered the withdrawal of the entire Astana team from that year's race. After a 2-year suspension from competition, he returned to cycling in August 2009, riding first for the national team of Kazakhstan and then rejoining Astana. A serious crash during the 2011 Tour de France threatened to prematurely end Vinokourov's career for a second time, but he announced he would continue for one more season in 2012 – with an eye towards competing in the Olympic Games in London. There, Vinokourov played the role of ultimate spoiler when he dramatically won the gold medal in the men's road race after breaking away in the closing miles with Colombian Rigoberto Urán.
Vinokourov retired after the Olympics and assumed management duties with for 2013. He was sacked as the team principal of Astana-Premier Tech in June 2021. However, in August 2021 Vinokourov returned as Team manager. He is an honorary colonel in the Kazakh army but lives in France with his wife and children.
Racing career
1984–1996: Early amateur career According to his father, Nikolay, Vinokourov began cycling at age 11 when he joined a branch of the Petropavl's Children and Youth Sports School. The Frenchman Vincent Lavenu, who would later offer Vinokourov his first professional contract, reported that the young Kazakhstani was training on the road every day at age 11, and also competing in cyclo-cross. In 1986 at age 13, Vinokourov became an athlete at a sports school in Almaty, then the capital of Kazakhstan, where he would train for the next five years. While fulfilling his compulsory two-year military service requirement, he also trained as part of the Soviet national team. Like some other top cyclists, he trained in Southern California during the winter months.
After Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union on 16 December 1991, Vinokourov continued to train and race, though as a member of the Kazakhstani national team. He placed third behind Pascal Hervé of France in the Regio Tour amateur stage race in Germany in 1993 (Vinokourov later would win this race as a professional in 2004). Other notable performances during these early years include winning two stages at the 1995 Tour of Ecuador and the overall GC at the 1996 Tour of Slovenia. Vinokourov also competed in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where he finished 53rd in the men's road race – an event he won 16 years later.
1997: 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-Étienne Loire (ECSEL) club 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 he 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 , and he reunited with Vinokourov in 2007 at .
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, he 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.
1998–2002 Vinokourov won six races in 1998, his first year as a professional, including the Four Days of Dunkirk, the Tour de l'Oise, and stages in both the Tour of Poland and Circuit des Mines. In early 1999, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage race, and three months later took two stages of the Midi Libre. Vinokourov also won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, beating the American Jonathan Vaughters along the way. (He lost the yellow jersey to Vaughters after the Mont Ventoux time trial but regained it on the following mountain stage.)
In 2000, Vinokourov joined . He won the combination competition in Paris–Nice and finished third in the Critérium International. He came 15th in the Tour de France after working for captain Jan Ullrich. His first win for the German team was stage 18 in the Vuelta a España, in which he caught the two riders in the breakaway and sprinted past Roberto Laiseka and Vicente Garcia Acosta in the last 300 metres. He came second several weeks later in the Olympic Games behind Ullrich and in front of another Telekom teammate, Andreas Klöden.
Vinokourov time-trialed to a stage win in the 2001 Deutschland Tour and took the yellow jersey from his Telekom teammate Erik Zabel. The dominance of the Telekom team was evident the following day when Rolf Aldag won and Vinokourov gained a minute and a half over the peloton to ensure victory. He rode the Tour de France that year in support of Ullrich, where he finished 16th overall.
Vinokourov won Paris–Nice in 2002, taking the leader's jersey after attacking Laurent Jalabert and Andrei Kivilev on Mont Faron. The penultimate stage to the Col d'Eze, a mountaintop finish, Vinokourov kept his lead and won Paris–Nice the following day. Later in 2002, he won the first mountain stage in the Tour de Suisse but several stages later he fell on a mountain descent and was taken to hospital after the stage. Vino abandoned the race to prepare for the Tour but it was discovered two weeks later that he had a broken coccyx and could not ride the 2002 Tour de France.
2003–2005
2003 would be a breakthrough year for Vinokourov, but one marred by an early-season personal tragedy that nevertheless drove him to perform inspirationally. His close friend Andrei Kivilev fell heavily during the second stage of Paris–Nice, slipped into a coma, and died during the night. The loss of his compatriot weighed heavily on Vinokourov, but he rallied and declared that he was more motivated than ever to win. Stage three had been neutralized and stage four was a time trial, but on stage five, which featured the race's only mountaintop finish, Vinokourov honoured his late-friend with a spectacular attack on Mont Faron that won him the stage and the leader's jersey. As he crossed the line, Vinokourov pointed skyward, and later explained to the press:
Most of all, [it's a victory for] for Andrei Kivilev. He wanted to win on Mont Faron and also Paris–Nice. I really gave everything for this victory, and today was a coup double, for him and for his family. I found the strength to continue the race, only for him, for his family, for his little boy. I'm satisfied today for myself and for them. I'm going to do everything to keep the jersey, and for that I found a double strength, myself and his strength as well. It's fantastic, and I'm very happy. For sure it's a victory for him, and I hope to keep the jersey until Nice.
Two days later, Vinokourov won Paris–Nice and in a final gesture to his friend, he displayed a photograph of Kivilev on the podium.
Forty days later, after the traditional period for mourning in Kazakhstan, Vinokourov won the Amstel Gold Race. He had reached the leading group with 10 kilometres to go, and attacked them at the 5 km banner. Vinokourov built an advantage of 15 seconds that he fought to maintain up the steep Cauberg finishing climb, winning by four seconds ahead of Michael Boogerd.
Vinokourov attacked on the flat first stage of the 2003 Tour de Suisse and only the Russian Serguei Ivanov could match him. Vinokourov won the stage and took the lead. Francesco Casagrande dropped Vinokourov on the first mountain stage and closed the gap to six seconds. Casagrande attacked again on the following mountain stage and took the jersey. But Casagrande cracked several days later in an individual time trial as Vinokourov finished fifth to retake the jersey and win the race.
Vinokourov was for the first time riding to win in the 2003 Tour de France. He was to share this role in his team with the Colombian Santiago Botero. Vinokourov finished second on the stage to the l'Alpe d'Huez. He attacked the following day on the final climb 9 km from the finish and won the stage. He moved into second overall, 21 seconds short of Lance Armstrong. Several days later in the individual time trial, won by Ullrich, Vinokourov took third position and kept it to the end. He was voted the most combative rider.
Vinokourov missed the break on the second stage of the 2004 Paris–Nice that gained five minutes, but he won three stages. He attacked towards the end of a small climb on the fifth stage with 8 km to go. He built ten seconds and won by four seconds. He dedicated the win to Kivilev. Vinokourov attacked the lead group on the flat windy coastal road in the finale of stage 7, with 5 km to go. He caught and passed Samuel Sánchez with 2 km to go and won the stage. Vinokourov won the final stage in a breakaway sprint against Denis Menchov.
Vinokourov came third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, behind Davide Rebellin and Michael Boogerd. Boogerd and Vinokourov had been matching each other while Rebellin waited for the sprint and won. Vinokourov crashed on the second stage of the Tour de Suisse, tearing ligaments in his shoulder. That stopped him riding the 2004 Tour de France.
He returned for the Regio Tour at the start of August. In the second stage, he won the time trial. In the following stage, he won the bunch sprint and took the leader's jersey to win. He then rode the Vuelta a España but due to food poisoning lost time during the first week. Vinokourov recovered and finished fourth in the time trial. He rode the world championship and took the bronze medal in the time trial.
Vinokourov's first win in 2005 and the first for the team was Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He broke away with Jens Voigt with more than 50 km to go. Vinokourov attacked on the final short climb 6 km from the finish but could not get away from Voigt. Instead he waited and beat Voigt in the sprint. In the Dauphiné Libéré, Vinokourov won the stage on Mont Ventoux. He had attacked the favourites for the Tour de France, reaching the breakaway before attacking at several hundred metres on the uphill finish to win the stage. Vinokourov travelled back to Kazakhstan to win the national championship ahead of Mizourov and Kashechkin.