He turned professional in 1983 for the St-Étienne-Pélussin team and came to notice that year when he came second on the sixth stage of the Dauphiné Libéré.

[1] St-Étienne was a small team and Claveyrolat's pay was so low that he worked for a construction company at Alpe d'Huez to make up the difference.

It was with RMO, sponsored by an employment agency, that he won his first race as a professional: a stage of the Dauphiné Libéré in 1987.

The peak of his career was the Tour de France in 1990, when he won the stage at St-Gervais in the shadow of Mont Blanc.

His slim build and short height brought him the nickname Clavette, a play on his name meaning "cotter pin"[3] His weakness was time-trialling, when his lightness made it hard to ride at sustained speed.

[2] He bought a bar, the Café de la Gare, at Vizille, south of Grenoble, and turned it into a bar-brasserie called L'Étape.

He sold a share of the business, used his winnings to plug the black hole in his bank account and determined to make a fresh start.

Informed that they intended to prosecute, the problem was a drop in the ocean compared to the horror of what was waiting round the corner.

[2]On 13 August 1999 Claveyrolat drove down the Côte de Laffrey, a mountain he had ridden many times by bike.

The other driver suffered multiple fractures, and his 14 year old son (who was sitting in the passenger seat) was seriously injured and lost an eye.