The Azerbaijan Cycling Federation was first registered with the Ministry of Justice in 1992, but it started its extensive practical activities in 2012. The main goal of the Federation is to promote the development of cycling sports in our country, as well as to ensure that our cyclists prepare for the Olympics and other prestigious international competitions and achieve successful results.
Spreading the sport of cycling more widely among people - especially children and youth - and raising them in a healthy spirit are among the priority directions of the Azerbaijan Cycling Federation's activities.
The first international cycling race included in the calendar of the International Cycling Union (UCI) in Azerbaijan was the 2012 May tour held for under-23 youth in memory of our nation's National Leader Heydar Aliyev. One year later, the multi-stage cycling race called the Tour d’Azerbaijan, which earned its rightful place in the world cycling calendar, began to be organized.
In 2013, this race received category 2.2 and was warmly welcomed in the world cycling community. The following year, it was upgraded to category 2.1, and from then on, in addition to continental teams representing all continents of the world, professional (pro-continental) teams also began to participate.
The Tour d’Azerbaijan cycling race, consisting of 5 stages and covering nearly 900 km, has been organized annually along routes passing through various cities and districts of our country. In addition to being one of the main factors contributing to the development of cycling in Azerbaijan, the race has also become a highly effective means of introducing our increasingly beautiful country to the whole world and showcasing its tourism potential.
An indicator of the race's growing prestige year by year was the extensive coverage it received in the world media. The world's most prestigious sports channel, Eurosport, provided detailed reports on all stages of the race to the global sports community. Starting from 2014, the race was broadcast live worldwide.
According to Eurosport's official 2014 report, the Tour d’Azerbaijan cycling race - with one stage broadcast live and the remaining days presented in highlights - was watched by more than 28.8 million viewers across all continents through this channel alone. Information and features about the tour were aired on 72 television channels in over 50 countries around the planet. Additionally, more than 15 million visits related to the Tour d’Azerbaijan were recorded on the official Eurosport website.
This serves as a vivid demonstration of the significant role this race plays in promoting our country and bringing its beauty and tourism opportunities to the attention of the entire world.
Members of Azerbaijan's first continental cycling team, the Synergy Baku Cycling Project, have repeatedly achieved successful results and climbed to the top step of the podium in prestigious races since the team began competing internationally in 2013.
In 2015, the members of the Synergy Baku Cycling Project, who won the team classification of the Tour d’Azerbaijan cycling race, were congratulated by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, together with his family during the opening of the Velopark, where he highly appreciated their achievements.
In 2016, the Synergy Baku Cycling Project won the team championship in the four continental races it participated in: Tour of Croatia, Tour d’Azerbaijan, Tour of Serbia, and Tour of Szeklerland (Romania). Throughout the year, representatives of our team climbed the podium 34 times, won 9 stages, and earned the leader's jersey - the highest achievement in this sport - 5 times.
In the final UCI ranking of world cycling teams for 2016, our team placed 4th among 176 continental clubs from 54 countries across all continents. On this list, only three Belgian clubs ranked ahead of Synergy Baku, which means that Azerbaijan - with just one team - ranked 2nd in the world overall, behind only Belgium.
Taking these achievements into account, the Synergy Baku Cycling Project was awarded a special prize by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2016 as the "Best Club Team of the Year" in Azerbaijan.
In June 2018, the UCI BMX World Championships were held in Baku. More than 1,500 athletes from over 100 countries around the world competed for the world championship medals at the BMX Velopark.
You can learn more about the Federation's activities in the other sections of the azvif.az website.