Vini Zabù – Brado – KTM, introducing Veljko Stojnic, young Serbian talent “My dream is to be the first Serbian at Tour de France”

Cycling in Serbia doesn’t represent the most practised sport, but in the last few years a generation of young talent are ready to compete at highest level and leave their mark in the history of cycling such other riders of East Europe like Peter Sagan, Primoz Roglic or Tadej Pogacar.
In September we met Veljko Stojnic during Giro della Toscana and we had the pleasure to talk a little, to discover something more about his amateur career, cycling in Serbia and his feeling during his first year as professional cyclist at Vini Zabù – Brado – KTM

Ciao Veljko, let’s start introducing yourself as cyclistI

“I was born the 4th of February 1999 and I started cycling in 2012, before that I was in basketball for 5 years, so I didn’t start so early like everyone else bere in Italy but I really enjoyed immediate”

Tell us something more about you, your hobbies and interest
“Beside cycling I really like to spend my free time with my girlfriend, whenever I can because I’m mostly here in Italy. When I have time I like watching TV series, play games and drinking coffee, of course”

Cycling in Serbia: the situation. Is the movement growing?
“About cycling in Serbia the situation is not so good as i would like to be. Cycling is not so famous sport in my country: people prefer football, basketball, volleyball and so I hope in future to be an ispiration for young cyclist and help this sport to grow”

Your 2019, an intense season: Giro d’Italia, 2 silver medal in National Championships, European Championship, and World Championship.
Tell us more about these amazing experiences
“My 2019 season was with Franco Ballerini team in Italy and we qualified for Giro d’Italia and it was really an hard race. It was most for Colombian climbers with a lot of hard mountain to climb. Anyway it was really a great experience, for the first time I tried what does it mean a 10 days race. For National Championship I didn’t have such good legs: in the time trial I was thinking I could win but one guy surprise me with a really good performance, so I was silver. For the road race I had to fight with another guy, Dusan Rajovic which is also professional now. I tried to make the difference in the only climb, but it was too short and in the sprint he won and I took a second silver medal. For European Championship I  really didn’t feel good and I performed bad in the time trial, while in the road race my teammate Rajovic was ready to play for a medal but it was raining and a crash broke our hopes of glory. I was also in Yorkshire for World Championship: I tried to join the first breakaway, but I didn’t succeed and under raining the race exploded during the first climb and I didn’t have possibility to make a recognizing of the circuit and I was in the back of peloton at that point so the race was over for me because after that I couldn’t close the gap with the first guys. It was really an intense season and I had two important victories in Italy and this is why I’m now here in a professional team”

Your 2020: first races in South America, Argentina e Colombia: which were your feelings to compete with the strongest cyclist of the world
“I started my first professional season with Vini Zabù KTM team and we had first races in South America, Argentina and Colombia. In Argentina it was really great experience but really hard to come from zero degrees to more than 30 degrees everyday. I did a lot of experience, I was in breakaway and I cooperated with the team and I started to understand how everything works at this level so I had great feelings. Colombia was a different history, we compete at more than 2400 meters and with a lot of finish at more than 3000 meters, so it was really too much hard to compete with Colombian climbers, so we were not competitive and we could only ride in the group as much as we can. That was really a nice experience but I would not repeat it anymore”

Uae Tour, tour first WorldTour race. And you did a great job before the race was stopped because of virus
“UAE Tour was a other opportunity to improve and make experience. I took in the first stage the intermediate and youth jerseys, but I lost them after one day. I was in the breakaways and collected points in the intermediate sprint to win the Green yersey for point classification but I missed it for one point. I was really disappointed because during another breakaway a guy of Trek Segafredo sprinted on me for the intermediate sprint for no reason and I lost this classification. I was happy for my job but the race was interrupted for Covid-19 emergency so it didn’t finish as it should have been, and I couldn’t have the possibility to try to win this jersey. Than 2 days of lockdown and we were sent back to Italy”

After lockdown were you ready for an intense season? Which were your goals for this year? And your goals for the future? And which is the race of your dreams?
“In March I went home in Serbia and come back to racing with team in the end of August for Tour of Hungary, a five day race. I really enjoyed and I was in the breakaway the first stage, then for the next 3 days I worked for the team in the peloton for the sprint but we were not good luck with the finish and the last day I helped the climbers of the team to start the final climb in front of the group, so I tried to made my best. In Tirreno Adriatico I was in the breakaway to show my jersey on TV and I tried to make my best for the team. The last two races in Toscana I was very tired after Tirreno and I couldn’t perform very well
For the end of season I try to do my best in every competition. This is an unpredictable year, we never know when it finish, I’m so happy to have possibility to compete. I’m very happy for the good condition I had in Tirreno Adriatico and I hope in the future to be competitive at that level. For next season I hope we have possibility to race like normal year and I would like to be competitive in the professional races such as HC category  (now Pro Series ndr.) and try to win stage or general classification of this competition.
My dream is to be the first Serbian at Tour de France”