LAURENS TEN DAM
The Dutch climbing domestique on his free- spirited nature and life after cycling
Nowadays you call it bikepacking, but I’d go on holidays in Holland with my father or my family.
With my father I’d go on my race bike; we rode 300km in three days when I was 11, 12 years old. We did three weeks in Holland with the whole family but the most we did was 40km a day. We took everything on our bikes, even tennis rackets. We were quite a sight - four kids, two parents, going from campsite to campsite. That’s what I love about cycling, the exploring part.
I always did my studies.
I finished my studies and in the same month I signed my first pro contract aged 22. That was perfect, because I have my bachelor in sports science.
I struggled with my iliac artery the last two amateur years and my first year as a pro.
Then, this injury was not so common with cyclists so it took a while to discover what I had. Once I had surgery, it was like the difference between night and day. Otherwise I would have retired really early.
In those days it was the dirty period of cycling, 2004-5.
I was between my first and second year as a pro. I had my operation and I think... It was, like, suspicious the amount of performance gain I had. Back then that surgery was not so common so they thought I was maybe using EPO.
Rabobank was like the national team of Holland.
I was really proud to race in orange, with Freire and Flecha, big stars of cycling. The top of the sport was like another world. I knew there were things going on but I was never tempted.
I understand why young riders did it, but I was not that person.
As an amateur I won two races and only one race as a pro. It was not about winning for me, but exploration and having good money. In my third year I made the same as my dad and I was still travelling the world, so I was happy.
Before 2007, I was only racing in Belgium, Germany... so not really climbing.
In 2007 I was at Unibet and we did Catalunya. I got fifth in a mountain stage in Andorra. Then I realised, f*ck, I might be a good climber.
I was a free spirit. That’s why I moved for one year to the US.
There are some unwritten rules, like you cannot live in the US and race in Europe but I was like, why not? I decided to do that for one year and it turned out to be one of the best years of my life.
I was living in Santa Cruz with the family and part-time in the high Sierra Nevada.
I always wanted to travel one year with the kids before they had to go to school. We moved there in January 2016 and I only came back to Europe to race in March and July for the Tour. For the rest I was racing all the gravel races in the US. It was the perfect choice.
I was experimental.
In 2009 I went to altitude all alone to El Teide, Tenerife, financed by myself, and now everybody does it with the teams. I was experimenting early with low carb, low calorie diets, I was already really skinny 10 years ago because I noticed that helped me up the hills. Now everybody is also really skinny and that’s a little bit less advantage for me. I’m happy I got the results I did the way I did them. In 2012, 13, 14, I had some really good years in the grand tours and I’m proud of that because I mainly did it by myself. I can really say the best Laurens possible was there for a few years.
I started my podcast in 2018 with Stefan Bolt. It took off, like, boom.
We won the best sport podcast in Holland, I’m really proud of that. It’s not a standard podcast about cycling. We also talk a lot about other things, it’s called ‘Live Slow, Ride Fast’ and that’s for a reason: the wine, food, camping, travelling, the countries... It’s not about cycling all the time. It’s about life. People like it.
I hear stories about pros retiring and never touching their bike again. That makes me a little sad because what are you doing your career so long for if you don’t like to ride your bike?
That’s where it started with me. I am not at the level I used to be, but I still enjoy being with the boys, riding and travelling. That’s enough for me.