Laurens ten Dam

Ten Dam at the 2011 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Laurens ten Dam
Nickname	LTD
Born	(1980-11-13) 13 November 1980 (age 44) Bedum, Netherlands
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight	67 kg (148 lb; 10 st 8 lb)[1]
Team information
Disciplines	Road (former) Gravel
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Amateur team
2000–2002	Rabobank Beloften
Professional teams
2003	Rabobank GS3
2004	BankGiroLoterij
2005	Shimano–Memory Corp
2006–2007	Unibet.com
2008–2015	Rabobank
2016–2018	Team Giant–Alpecin
2019	CCC Team[2]

Laurens ten Dam (born 13 November 1980) is a Dutch cyclist, who competes in gravel cycling. He formerly competed professionally in road cycling between 2003 and 2019 for the Rabobank GS3, BankGiroLoterij, Unibet.com, LottoNL–Jumbo, Team Sunweb and CCC Team squads.^[3] During his road racing career, Ten Dam took two victories – stage wins at the 2006 Course de Solidarność et des Champions Olympiques and the 2008 Critérium International.

A native of the village of Zuidwolde in Groningen, Ten Dam started racing in 2000 with Rabobank Beloften. He remained with the team until 2003, before spending one season at both BankGiroLoterij in 2004 and Shimano–Memory Corp in 2005. He then spent two years with Unibet.com in 2006 and 2007, where he recorded a stage victory at the 2006 Course de Solidarność et des Champions Olympiques, and a top-ten overall finish at the 2007 Volta a Catalunya (ninth).^[4]

Ten Dam joined Rabobank for the 2008 season,^[5] and won a stage at the Critérium International.^[6] The following year, he won the mountains classification at the 2009 Tour de Romandie. After no victories in 2010, Ten Dam recorded top-ten finishes at the 2011 editions of the Tour Down Under (fifth), the Tour of California (sixth),^[7] and the Tour de Suisse (eighth).^[8] In 2012, Ten Dam finished 8th in the Vuelta a España, his best grand tour finish.^[9]

In the 2013 Tour de France, Ten Dam had an excellent first two weeks of the Tour, sitting 5th overall after the end of the second week with his teammate, Bauke Mollema 2nd overall. However, in the last week, Ten Dam struggled to stay with the general classification contenders making him slip out of the top ten, finishing 13th overall.^[10]

At the 2014 Tour de France, Ten Dam was selected to lead Belkin Pro Cycling with Mollema. Through the Vosges on stages 9 and 10 Ten Dam was already almost 8 minutes behind race leader, Vincenzo Nibali giving his leadership to Mollema. Ten Dam's form slowly improved as the race went through the Alps finishing 8th on stages 13 and 14. With his good form moving through the Pyrenees, Ten Dam managed to finish in the top 10 overall, finishing 9th.^[11]

In October 2015 it was announced that Ten Dam would join Team Giant–Alpecin on an initial one-year contract for 2016, after spending eight years with Rabobank and its other guises, combining racing in the United States with competing in Europe and a focus on supporting Warren Barguil and Tom Dumoulin through his climbing ability and tactical knowledge.^[12] He finished in tenth place overall at the 2016 Tour of California,^[13] but this was his only top-ten overall finish in three years with the team.

While riding for CCC Team, Ten Dam announced his retirement from road racing in July 2019, but moved into gravel cycling.^[14]

In May 2021, Ten Dam won the Gravel Locos race in Hico, Texas.^[15]

Ten Dam is married with two children.^[16] Since his retirement from road racing, Ten Dam is able to spend more time with his family and life has become less regimented.^[17] In 2021, Ten Dam started a podcast called the "Beter Worden Podcast" (English: Get Better) in which several aspects of improving on the bike are highlighted and discussed with a human movement scientist.^[18][19]

Source: ^[20]

Grand Tour general classification results
Grand Tour	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Giro d'Italia	—	—	28	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	34	35	DNF
Tour de France	—	21	60	—	58	28	13	9	92	73	67	51	—
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	DNF	—	8	DNF	44	—	—	—	—	—
Major stage race general classification results
Race	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Paris–Nice	—	42	—	—	DNF	43	—	—	—	122	—	—	44
Tirreno–Adriatico	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	80	—	—	—	—
Volta a Catalunya	9	—	—	28	12	77	60	62	DNF	80	16	65	31
Tour of the Basque Country	62	29	—	59	—	—	39	—	—	—	60	DNF	—
Tour de Romandie	30	59	42	—	—	39	—	24	63	—	37	36	—
Critérium du Dauphiné	—	—	—	—	—	—	13	—	—	—	—	DNF	86
Tour de Suisse	65	10	—	DNF	8	23	—	13	20	72	—	—	—
Tour de Pologne	18	85	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Event		2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Olympic Games	Road race	NH	—	Not held			64	Not held			—	Not held			—	Not held
World Championships	Road race	—	—	—	—	DNF	—	—	—	—	119	DNF	—	—	—	—	—	—
National Championships	Road race	25	—	84	35	6	38	32	—	36	DNF	18	40	DNF	47	DNF	58	73

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laurens ten Dam.

• Official website
• Team Sunweb profile
• Laurens ten Dam at Cycling Archives (archived)
• Laurens ten Dam at ProCyclingStats