Sports minister says successful Tour of Armenia was result of teamwork

Armenia’s Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan has met with the staff of the Sports Management Center, led by Director Khoren Zargaryan.

According to the ministry’s readout, Andreasyan thanked the center’s staff for the extensive work carried out to organize and hold the Tour of Armenia multi-day professional cycling race, held in Armenia for the first time.

The Tour of Armenia, also dubbed the Tour d'Arménie, is sanctioned as a Class 2.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour. The Tour of Armenia, held September 10-13, consisted of four stages, covering a total distance of 587 km with 5,300 meters of elevation gain. It passed through four regions of Armenia.

Simone Raccani (Team Ukyo) won the general classification of the new UCI Europe Tour race.

“This was an entirely new experience for us. Our country had never hosted an international multi-day cycling race before. We had to learn a lot along the way, be flexible and responsive, and also be able to address unforeseen issues that arose,” the Minister said, emphasizing that the successful staging of the race was the result of teamwork.

The Sports Management Center was established about two years ago with the aim of having a specialized structure in the field of sports, bringing relations with federations into an institutional framework, and taking responsibility for organizing major sporting events.

The Minister emphasized that the successful organization of the race was effective work toward this goal. Recalling that the Tour of Armenia is planned to become an annual event, the Minister noted that analyzing the experience will contribute to holding the race in a more organized manner in the coming years.

The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports emphasized that the feedback received on the race has been largely positive, both in terms of its organization and the conduct of the event. In this context, she mentioned the attention and coverage the race received from a number of prestigious international platforms, noting that this has given Armenia greater visibility.

Sports Management Center Director Khoren Zargaryan, in turn, thanked the Minister for her trust and support, emphasizing that cooperation and prompt responses from the entire ministry team enabled more effective decision-making. According to him, despite the heavy workload involved in organizing the race, the center also continued its day-to-day work, maintaining contact with sports federations and infrastructure facilities.

The meeting also discussed upcoming programs in the sports sector, as well as planned work on management, digitalization, the creation of new infrastructure, and realizing the economic potential of sports.

It was noted that the sports management information system is planned to be launched in the near future. It will enable the digitalization of a number of processes related to work with federations, contributing to the development of transparency, accountability, and monitoring mechanisms.