Laurens ten Dam

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, , , , and  squads. 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.

Career
A native of the village of Zuidwolde in Groningen, Ten Dam started racing in 2000 with. He remained with the team until 2003, before spending one season at both in 2004 and  in 2005. He then spent two years with 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).

Rabobank (2008–2015)
Ten Dam joined for the 2008 season, and won a stage at the Critérium International. 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), and the Tour de Suisse (eighth). In 2012, Ten Dam finished 8th in the Vuelta a España, his best grand tour finish.

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.

At the 2014 Tour de France, Ten Dam was selected to lead 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.

Team Giant–Alpecin (2016–2018)
In October 2015 it was announced that Ten Dam would join on an initial one-year contract for 2016, after spending eight years with  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. He finished in tenth place overall at the 2016 Tour of California, but this was his only top-ten overall finish in three years with the team.

Retirement from road racing
While riding for, Ten Dam announced his retirement from road racing in July 2019, but moved into gravel cycling.

In May 2021, Ten Dam won the Gravel Locos race in Hico, Texas.

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

Major results
Source:


 * 1999
 * 3rd Overall Flèche du Sud


 * 2003
 * 1st La Marmotte


 * 2004
 * 9th Grote Prijs Stad Zottegem


 * 2005
 * 3rd Overall Ster Elektrotoer
 * 3rd Omloop der Kempen
 * 4th Overall Tour of Belgium
 * 4th Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
 * 8th Overall Tour de Luxembourg
 * 8th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
 * 9th Hel van het Mergelland


 * 2006
 * 1st Jersey polkadot.svg Mountains classification, Ster Elektrotoer
 * 5th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
 * 7th Route Adélie de Vitré
 * 7th Polynormande
 * 9th Overall Course de la Solidarité Olympique
 * 1st Stage 2a (ITT)


 * 2007
 * 5th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise
 * 7th Overall Deutschland Tour
 * 9th Overall Volta a Catalunya


 * 2008
 * 5th Overall Critérium International
 * 1st Stage 1
 * 10th Overall Tour de Suisse


 * 2009
 * 1st Jersey red.svg Mountains classification, Tour de Romandie
 * 8th Overall Vuelta a Murcia


 * 2010
 * 10th Overall Vuelta a Burgos


 * 2011
 * 5th Overall Tour Down Under
 * 6th Overall Tour of California
 * 8th Overall Tour de Suisse
 * 10th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León


 * 2012
 * 1st Ridderronde Maastricht
 * 8th Overall Vuelta a España
 * 9th Brabantse Pijl


 * 2013
 * 3rd Overall Tour du Haut Var
 * 8th Overall Tour of Norway


 * 2014
 * 8th Overall Tour of California
 * 9th Overall Tour de France


 * 2016
 * 10th Overall Tour of California


 * 2021
 * 1st Gravel Locos 150
 * 2nd Unbound Gravel 200


 * 2022
 * 4th Unbound Gravel 200


 * 2023
 * 4th Unbound Gravel 200