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Yerevan’s Republic Square is usually hectic. But on September 13, as the Tour of Armenia arrived, the roads were empty and the usual bustle was gone. Fans and unexpected passersby gathered quietly near the finish line, waiting. Each time the peloton went by to complete another lap, the silence broke into whistles and applause, bringing the square to life. The noise peaked as Italian cyclist Simone Raccani crossed the line with a victorious gesture, followed by the 95 cyclists who had also given their all in the final leg. Four days and 587 kilometers after the race began, the Tour of Armenia had reached its finish in the heart of Yerevan. 

In the Tour’s first edition, 16 teams from more than ten countries, including Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, the United Kingdom, and Armenia, rode from the shores of Lake Sevan through the Tavush and Lori regions before finishing with a 113-km circuit of ten laps through the capital. It was a striking sight in a country where cycling is uncommon and professional road racing is still relatively new, yet the event brought the sport and its culture to Armenia’s streets and television screens. Held from September 10 to 13, it was the country’s most significant international cycling road race to date and part of the UCI Europe Tour, the series organized by the cycling’s world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale. 

The Tour put Armenia’s landscapes in the spotlight, with images of Lake Sevan, Parz Lake, and their forests and mountains broadcast internationally, earning the country a well-earned spot on the global cycling map and sparking interest among cycling fans. However, beyond the international visibility, organizers presented the race as a way to encourage Armenians to cycle. Ara Sadoyan, president of the Armenian Cycling Federation, has called the tour a “catalyst for local cycling development.”

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who blended into the crowd along the cycle track before greeting the athletes at the finish line, has been a supporter and advocate of cycling culture. He has promoted it as a potential remedy to traffic congestion and pollution problems, among the main challenges the city faces. In recent years, the Prime Minister has attended events by bike and shared social media clips of himself cycling before traffic jams and road chaos hit Yerevan’s streets. 

The government has also launched several projects to encourage bike use, especially among younger Armenians. The Prime Minister’s Cup cycling tournament, for example, has developed into a nationwide competition. This year, participation exceeded 4,000 students, and the event took place on the same days as the Tour of Armenia. Last year, the government also introduced a program to subsidize the interest on loans of up to 300,000 AMD for university students and professors to purchase a bike or cycling equipment. This year, Armenia also held an amateur cycling tour around Lake Sevan, framed around developing a broader “cycling culture”. 

These policies suggest the government wants more people to get on bikes. But is Yerevan ready for it? 

According to urban planner Astghik Mashinyan of the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, there is more to the story. “People are ready to cycle, but the lack of infrastructure to do it safely stops them,” she says. Mashinyan has conducted an extensive assessment of Yerevan, drawing models from cities around the world to develop a sustainable mobility plan for the capital. She argues that the city’s growing interest in cycling could bring significant benefits: easing traffic congestion, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and relieving pressure on public transport and improving road safety. 

“We need to make Yerevan a city for people, not cars,” the urban developer urges. In her vision for sustainable mobility, a key priority is creating an uninterrupted, connected cycling network linking the city’s main areas and neighborhoods. Yerevan also needs more dedicated bicycle parking and automated bike-rental systems to make cycling a practical option for everyday travel.

In 2019, local cycling in Yerevan seemed to be gaining momentum. Yerevan’s first bike lane was built on Koghbatsi Street, and that same year, Mimo, the first dockless bike-sharing platform, started filling corners of the city with bright yellow bikes. 

But Koghbatsi’s bike lane, once a promising step toward a wider cycling network, has since vanished, taken over by cars. Meanwhile, the love-hated e-scooters, introduced in 2021 by Mimo, Jet, and YerevanRide, have continued to expand, while e-bikes have evaporated. The infrastructure needed to support cycling never kept pace with the growth of micromobility, limiting the wider use of these vehicles as everyday modes of transport. 

Under Mayor Tigran Avinyan’s administration, the municipality’s current development program calls for “promoting public transport and bicycle mobility.” Yet, its current infrastructure plan contains no dedicated program for building a connected cycling network, instead prioritizing investment in roads, electric buses, and public transport infrastructure. Yerevan’s first bicycle infrastructure plan was drafted in 2015, but nearly a decade later, little has materialized. The city has only two functioning bike lanes: a route through Circular Park route, about 2.5 kilometers long, and a roughly 3.5-kilometer lane in the Botanical Garden’s Park of Life. Because both are located in green spaces, they serve as leisure and recreational routes rather than efficient transport links. Elsewhere, cyclists must ride alongside cars in heavy traffic, or dodge pedestrians on sidewalks, making cycling a far less practical option for everyday travel.

Avinyan has spoken about shifting toward a transport model that resembles “the European one”. However, Mashinyan acknowledges the limits on Yerevan’s ability to reach this goal, arguing that, like other developing cities, it lacks the human, economic, and technical resources to build a comprehensive cycling infrastructure. “That is why integrated solutions like shared bicycle-bus lanes are a good option,” she says. Alongside one- and two-way bike lanes along roads, the integrated plan would also include bike paths incorporated into pedestrian routes through the city’s parks and gardens.

Mashinyan hopes the government will start “working very soon to turn this trend into something viable.” Still, despite efforts to promote cycling culture, Yerevan does not appear poised, at least not yet, to become a cycling city. The government is encouraging students to buy bicycles, and thousands of schoolchildren are taking part in competitions. Private companies have moved into Yerevan and placed shared bicycles on its streets. The Tour has put the country on the international cycling map, inspiring Armenians to replace buses and cars with bikes. But turning this visibility into a genuine cycling culture will be harder. Without a safe network to support the shift, cyclists can only go so far.

SALT’s September issue is all about movement: running, cycling, walking, wandering and remembering. From Armenia’s growing running culture and the Tour of Armenia to the human body serving as spectacle, we explore how the city is experienced in motion. We also look back at Yerevan’s memories and uncover a coffee shop hidden behind a secret door.