Beijing Olympic champion Sanchez serves as ambassador for inaugural Tour of Armenia

BRUSSELS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen years after winning Olympic road race gold in Beijing, Spanish cycling great Samuel Sanchez has taken on a new role in the sport as an ambassador for the inaugural Tour of Armenia.

File photo: AFP

The four-stage race, held from Sept. 10 to 13, is a UCI Europe Tour 2.2 event and features 96 riders from 16 teams. Starting in Gavar and finishing in Yerevan, the route covers around 587 km and combines fast sections with demanding climbs totaling more than 5,300 meters of elevation gain.

For Sanchez, who is attending the final stages of the race, Armenia's first attempt to stage an international cycling tour has left a strong impression.

"What impressed me most was the enthusiasm and ambition with which Armenia launched this first edition," Sanchez told Xinhua. "You could feel a very strong commitment here to growing cycling and establishing the Tour of Armenia on the international calendar."

The 48-year-old also highlighted Armenia's mountainous terrain and landscapes, saying the race could help develop cycling and discover new talent.

Sanchez's career remains closely associated with Beijing, where he claimed the gold medal in the men's road race at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"Beijing 2008 changed my life," he said. "Sportingly, it was the most important moment of my career, and on a personal level, it is a memory that will stay with me forever."

He said China and Beijing would "always hold a very special place" in his story, adding that he hoped to return to Beijing and ride there again, "as it is a place I would love to revisit to better enjoy its landscapes and its people."

Since retiring from professional racing, Sanchez has worked with young riders and cycling projects, a transition he sees as a way of passing on his experience to a new generation.

"Serving as an ambassador for a race like the Tour of Armenia is part of this new chapter," he said, adding that he enjoys sharing his experience and supporting new cycling initiatives in different countries.

He also hopes to pass on lessons from Beijing 2008 to young riders. "Young cyclists should dream big, but understand that those dreams are built step by step. I arrived in Beijing with a dream and left as an Olympic champion. That experience taught me that when talent, hard work, patience, and self-belief come together, extraordinary things can happen."

Armenian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan said the goal was to make the Tour of Armenia a recurring race, adding that future editions could take the race to more regions across the country.