Communityinterview

LAURENS TEN DAM ON OVERTRAINING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN CYCLING

with Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist with 16 years in the World Tour; Tour de France top 10 finisher (9th in 2014); Vuelta a España top 10; now racing gravel and podcast host

48:05·3 November 2020

LISTEN NOW

Listen on

Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube

LAURENS TEN DAM

Professional cyclist with 16 years in the World Tour; Tour de France top 10 finisher (9th in 2014); Vuelta a España top 10; now racing gravel and podcast host

PROFILE →

Laurens Ten Dam is one of the more articulate Dutch riders of his generation — a Tour de France GC top-10 finisher with Belkin and CCC, and now a serious gravel privateer who has finished Unbound, raced the Migration Gravel Race, and built one of the most-watched amateur gravel YouTube channels. His Live Slow Ride Fast podcast, co-hosted with Stefan Bolt, is one of the longest-running cycling podcasts in Europe. For amateurs interested in the transition from road racing to gravel and ultra-endurance — and the realities of training as a near-50 ex-pro — his content is exceptional.

Verified profiles

Wikipedia

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Laurens ten Dam's "Live Slow, Ride Fast" motto is a 16-year career philosophy. It started as a Twitter-organised post-classics campfire ride in the Ardennes and grew into the framework that saved his career.
Top-10 Tour de France finishes (9th in 2014) didn't make him happy. Overtraining did the opposite. A 50-mile gravel race in Santa Rosa with a cooler of beer at the finish line bought him three more pro years.
The "Live Slow" rule: when you drink wine, drink good wine. When you drink beer, drink good beer. When you make coffee, make a proper cup. The point is presence, not asceticism.
Cycling means different things at different points in life. As a kid: escape the neighbourhood. As a pro: a job. As a retired-then-gravel rider: adventure again. The bike can keep being a tool with new uses.
Modern Instagram culture pulls in the opposite direction — fake life, performative effort, trivial relationships. Live Slow is corrective rather than nostalgic.

TOPICS

Laurens ten Dam spent 16 years in the World Tour, finished 9th at the Tour de France in 2014, and then nearly quit cycling entirely. A 50-mile gravel race in Santa Rosa, California with a cooler of beer at the finish line saved his career and bought him three more years as a professional.

Key Takeaways

After his 2014 Tour de France result, ten Dam went all-in trying to improve for 2015. More training, less food, stricter everything. He emptied himself completely and had a season he describes as a hell of a year. He broke his back the week after the Tour, counted 100 days away from home that season with only 10 days back, five of those grumpy and exhausted. The overtraining cost him more than a bad season — it nearly cost him the sport.

What brought him back was a grasshopper adventure race in Santa Rosa where nobody told him what the rules were, Levi Leipheimer and Jeff Kabush were on the start line, and there were coolers of beer and bags of chips waiting at the top of the final climb. He finished 4th. He also says he did maybe two real interval sessions per year during his entire World Tour career. The rest was what he calls soul rides. He still finished 9th at the Tour de France. If you're hammering every session and wondering why you're going backwards, that's the number worth sitting with.

Laurens ten Dam is a Dutch professional cyclist with 16 years in the UCI WorldTour, best known for finishing 9th overall at the 2014 Tour de France and achieving a top 10 at the Vuelta a España. He has stated that following his 2014 Tour result he overtrained through the 2014-15 winter, leading to a severely underperforming 2015 season and a broken back in the week after the Tour. Ten Dam reports spending 90-100 days away from home annually during his peak Tour de France years. He credits a 2016 Grasshopper gravel race in Santa Rosa, California — where he finished 4th behind Levi Leipheimer and Jeff Kabush — with rekindling his motivation and extending his WorldTour career by three years through 2019. He has stated that during his professional career he completed approximately two high-intensity interval sessions per year, with the remainder of his training volume consisting of low-intensity endurance riding. Ten Dam is also the co-founder of Live Slow Ride Fast, an endurance cycling and lifestyle platform, and organises gravel events in Europe that have attracted over 600 participants.

If the Tour de France side of ten Dam's story interests you, the Pogacar episode goes deep into what it actually takes to win the thing. And if you want more on the gravel scene he helped build in Europe, the European Gravel Championship episode covers how fast that world has moved.

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

EXPERT
Laurens ten Dam spent approximately 16 years as a professional WorldTour cyclist, with a top finish of 9th overall at the 2014 Tour de France and additional Vuelta a España top-ten results.
Source: Career record referenced on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
ANECDOTE
Ten Dam credits a 50-mile gravel race in Santa Rosa, California — with a cooler of beer at the finish line — with reframing his relationship to cycling and extending his professional career by approximately three years past where overtraining-induced burnout would otherwise have ended it.
Source: Laurens ten Dam, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
ANECDOTE
The "Live Slow Ride Fast" philosophy began at a 2011 post-classics Twitter-organised camping ride in the Ardennes, where approximately 30 riders showed up — and grew into a recurring camp and brand identity Ten Dam has built his post-cycling work around.
Source: Laurens ten Dam first-person account
ANECDOTE
Childhood bike-packing trips with his father (3-day, 350km loops around the Ijsselmeer) shaped Ten Dam's lifelong association of cycling with adventure and accomplishment — a frame he argues every long-tenured pro should preserve to avoid burnout in their career.
Source: Laurens ten Dam personal history

KEY QUOTES

“when i did that tour de france in 2014 even on the sunday night i was already thinking about the vuelta we would start four weeks later and i was also like a team leader you know like maybe not too much food and stuff like that in hindsight that was totally crazy and also it never got better after that tour de france”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

“i tried to train more to be a little bit more skinny to do everything a little bit better and i just emptied myself myself too much and the season 2015 so the season after was like nothing was like a hell of a season”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

“i didn't even do an altitude stage like a like altitude camp and i still got 13 you know and 14 i thought okay maybe put in an altitude cam for two weeks and maybe it's better”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT10 SECTIONS

Welcome and podcast listener stats

Lauren stendam welcome to the roadmap podcast okay nice to see you nice to have you sometimes and uh and now i finally see the face behind the actually at google i googled some uh some pictures of you and then i saw you i started racing your bike but now i see the face behind the behind the mic yeah it's crazy because i have some of the world tour guys in the podcast and like they're talking about like oh yeah i was listening to the podcast on the way to traino adriatica today and stuff and i was like that's so [ __ ] cool because i never got to like that was my dream to race those races but i was never good enough and for guys to be on the way to the race listening to the road man podcast this just pretty cool yeah yeah that's uh no i i i podcast myself too for me it's the same i heard so many stories of people like uh uh listening to the podcast or they they know a lot about me because i i talk a lot about my life in the podcast you know and then it's almost like they're your friends isn't it a crazy world where you can sit behind a computer and like i look at the stats sometimes and there's one dude if you're listening to this dude you need to reach out there's one dude in kenya and he listens to my podcast like every episode just one download from and i just have this image of this guy like walking through the desert with a spear listening to the podcast who is this i don't know actually actually i don't don't do too much that's that thing that's more my uh my host like i do it together with somebody else but uh i didn't even know that you could find like a wu download downloaded it oh yeah you can see the country you should check it out i don't know i didn't know that i know we have we're happy with the downloads we have you know but uh uh i don't know the the exact people yeah i like to kind of tell myself a story so i look and i see there's some downloads in russia and i was like oh yeah putin's kicking it back into kremlin listening to the podcast it's definitely putin oh yeah uh lawrence you have a cool motto when i was researching the podcast and obviously i'm a massive cyclone fan and i knew who you were so i didn't have to do that much research on it i've been watching you for you know a decade plus but some of the stuff i came across uh like this motto that you have live slow ride hard i just thought that's so [ __ ] or live slow right fast sorry yeah tell us about that yeah that's like my life motto you know and uh it started a while ago you know just before actually it started already in 2011 i had my first uh lift flow right fast camp it was like a twitter ride into in after the classics the week after the classics i invited people on twitter to come to the ardens and camp with me and have a campfire and because i also wanted to ride the roads in the islands enjoying the scenery and be with friends and be able to drink a beer and stuff like that and i think 30 people showed up and since then it started and we took off it feels like it's the best about cycling that motto just kind of encapsulates it all that you can throw down hard when you're riding uphill or you're riding across wind but then once you finish the ride you just don't take yourself too serious it's just about chilling back it's not about the fast cars and the big houses it's just like no exactly no exactly it is like that it's also you have to enjoy the small things and enjoy the good coffee that's what i mean with live slo enjoy a beer once in a while a good glass of wine you know but when you drink wine drink good wine when you drink beer drink good wine when you make coffee take it make take attention to make the right cup of coffee you know for yourself and then yeah on the road you you just go with your friends and try to raise each other and wait on top for each other and then go down and take the pitch with you with each other and just have fun on a bike and the bike can take you everywhere and it's a it's a recipe for adventures you know so yeah i love to be be able to still ride my bike i wrote a blog a while ago and i was reflecting back on what cycling was to me and i was looking at different times in my life the bike has been something completely different but at the very start it was like a way to escape the confines of my local neighborhood it was a way to like broaden my world and make it a little bit bigger and when i listen to you even on some of your interviews when you're like you've made it as one of the top writers in the world you still sound like that adventurous kid who's still using it to broaden your horizon yeah that's it exactly that's true that actually

Houseboat childhood and first bike trips

My first memory was i was on a bike i was on my strider bike or tree wheel i don't know trike i don't know and i was because i was living on one of those houseboats you know like i'm a real dutch guy and i was born on a houseboat and i was i just went straight next to the channel and i and maybe i was three years old you know and i was like what the [ __ ] where am i you know and okay let's just return and go back to mom and dad you know but i started to explore there already and i remember when i was 11 years old old i bought my my first road bike you know and i got rid of all the mud guards and all the all the other stuff to make it look like a real race bike but still every every summer i would put everything back up again and then i would go with my dad's bike packing you know nowadays you would call it bike backing but yeah back then we said bike holiday or something you know and we would do like a lap around the isomer of 350 kilometers and we would take three days to do it you know and camp and make the tent to make food and stuff like that it's just things were the highlight of my my my summers you know like i would still remember those three days with my dad being in this in the tiniest tent and riding our bikes around the lake you know and feel also the lift slow feeling but also the feeling of accomplishment like we did something we did something nice now we'll be able to eat a big steak you know in a at night at the campfire with my dad you know because we did something and now we buy a nice steak and stuff like that so but isn't the lift slothing just getting more and more important when you see the social media instagram culture that's kind of emerging where everybody's you know trying to put up a sort of a fake life for their best for forward and you know relationships are quite trivial and you know it's we're drifting into a place where it's probably the opposite of where we need to be going as a society but live slow kind of brings it back forward i must admit you know i have to slogan but sometimes i also forget it you know sometimes i'm also busy and going to meetings and and and doing stuff maybe i don't want to do and uh and then i have to realize sit back go on the bike and go for a few hours come back play with the kids and enjoy that day for being good you know like go on the bike play with the kids have some attention to cooking a nice meal for yourself and the family and then the day is good already you know so then you have to step back and see what what you really like instead of going into that rat race not maybe with instagram but with companies and negotiations and we have to do more and more and more and sometimes you have to step back and think like okay actually what i have already is is kind of nice and let's uh let's say for this you know yeah you know what i started doing which is a cool idea a buddy of mine uh who runs a big company super busy guy and he was saying if he didn't create time for himself the day just gets away from him so he started like from my google calendar obviously i have my uh podcast recording with you in the calendar but i also have scheduled like time for myself what time i'm going to ride the bike at like 9 00 am to 12 o'clock i'm riding the bike so if somebody like sends me an invite and they're like oh can you do a meeting at this time or can you do a recording at this time i look at and i'm like you know what i have a meeting right there that i can't move because it's like the most important meeting of the day is to meet with myself on my bike to go right no you're right about that uh the thing is for me it's that's that's totally natural because i i used to be a pro cyclist and everybody would accept if i said no if they asked something for me i would always say after 3 p.m yeah you know because before i'm riding the bike and if i do the bike for three hours i'm resting the other three hours yeah and still i i like to plan all my meetings the end of the afternoon because that's that's still in the system of riding the bike and i still have to be competitive to raise all those gravel races on photo because i'm also still sponsored by some companies to do it actually more partnerships than sponsors because we we do a lot of other things together too but still i want to ride a bike and and be competitive next year in 2021 so it's also part of my routine and it's also part of who i am so i i do exactly the same as you do so i definitely want to get into the gravel stuff and all about that because i think the next chapter you're cycling

From 1991 Tour fan to pro

Is almost as exciting if not more exciting than the previous chapters you've written but before i jump into the gravel stuff like what you're 16 years as a world tour writer and like yeah something like that i was 16 years ago yeah like tour de france top 10 vuelta gc top 10 you've crashes you've upset downs when you started out as a kid riding your bike along the canal in holland what was the dream did you ever think you were going to get that far uh actually i didn't dare to dream it i think you know once you get older maybe but when i was a young kid i also together with my parents we went to france and watched the tour de france and i was so delighted to be there you know i remember the first mountain stage we did i was 10 years old was 91 zhu plun and i was so excited that like i walked up that mountain together with my parents and my dad was pushing my youngest brother in a stroller he was like two years old and i was running with every tourist guy you know like i could i could keep up with them you know i was that young young kid who could keep up with the old guys climbing the mountain on their bikes and i run like four kilometers like that but and then it started to rain and stuff like that and that planted the seeds like okay you know this is like something i i admired those guys who did it who did all that and uh somewhere i think i wanted to be it but i never expected to be there and that was till i was 20 21 years old but and i was racing for abubak the amateur team or the u-23 team the development team and then you start to know like okay i can really make it as a pro does it ever sink in because cyclists are so goal oriented that you're always looking to the next sort of france the next vuelta i want to be gc i'm eight this year can i push into the top five next year do you ever have time during that whole process to go you know what just enjoy the moment because this might be as good as it gets like when you hit your tour de france top ten i'm sure you thought next year i'm going to hit two points you know yeah you actually hit a good point there because in hindsight i you know when i did that tour de france in 2014 even on the sunday night i was already thinking about the vuelta we would start four weeks later and i was also like a team leader you know like maybe not too much food and stuff like that in hindsight that was totally crazy and also it never got better after that tour de france but in that winter after that tour de france i tried to be better i was thinking okay i was ninth last year maybe i can become sixth you know or first five that would be even better so i tried to be to train more to be a little bit more skinny to do everything a little bit better and i just i just emptied myself myself too much and the season 2015 so the season after was like nothing was like a hell of a season so uh it took me it took me time to realize that that in i went to the u.s in 2016 i was living in the us because in 15 i didn't like cycling anymore and there i realized like man i did so many stupid things the winter after 2014 because there was too focused and i wanted to continue to continue and there i started to take a step back and to enjoy life and to do a little bit more live slow and then i was one whole year with a family basically i just raised in march and in july in in in europe and the rest i was stayed in the us with my family so there i realized how important it is to step back and to be with the family to be in the moment you know instead of always thinking about okay the next the next the next and i tried also to teach that to to the guys i was actually domestic for uh since then like dumoulin and and those other guys so what separates anointing the third of france from a turret in the tour de france and then as a follow-up to that is it worth the sacrifice you know like to go from ninth to third if you need to go from having a family and having a life and really being happy to live an up the side of a volcano in tenerife for six months of the year like at what point does that trade off like not water yeah that depends that that uh that's different with every single person for example also nowadays you're right it's getting more and more difficult for the top guys who are doing gcs in the grand tours to have a normal family life back then back then in the year before 2013 2013 i didn't even do an altitude stage like a like altitude camp and i still got 13 you know and 14 i thought okay maybe put in an altitude cam for two weeks and maybe it's better so uh i spoke

Dumoulin, Kruijswijk and the sacrifice

To this for example about it with dumoulin and for him it's difficult well for example with stephen kreuzrike i know also for my years in your mofisma he's not he's not asking those questions you do to himself he just does what he needs to do what's on the schedule he enjoys the process enough and he just does it till the end of his career without asking questions like is it worth the sacrifice or is it worth it so but but dumoulin is different and he maybe he i can see at him and for example also for me in 2015 when i was not 19 or two of the friends i was a lot like what the [ __ ] am i doing here i broke my back the week after the tour i instantly decided okay it's enough i go to the u.s now and i go to try to find the law for cycling again like i always started as a young kid and i also think the young kids they don't like you see i went to the tour in 91 but you don't know what's behind those guys you know and when a young kid now goes to the tour and he watched them climbing those mountains he doesn't know they were they are on the on the on the mountain for two months before like the rockles was not as uh has not have been at home for three months in a row seriously no no no he hasn't been at home till after the world setting oh awesome yeah nobody understands this when they're watching it and they're listening to it they just think what an amazing they think it's like premier league soccer or yeah like you don't go home to your girlfriend every night they think no they think uh you're living the dream and it's it's it's it like i said it's it's different each person like i saw wilker kellerman taking the pink jersey and he saw him smile and he there was something he dreamt dreamed of you know he saw him also he was also very disappointed when he lost it but also i remember being with tom in the last week of the year he was in pink and everybody tried to touch him and try once an autograph and and evil he was him and quintana was still attacking him and there was like controversy in the in the burns like they had a fight and i remember being with tom in the philadelphia and there were also some teammates and i also thought he's living the dream and i told him like okay i can see your face now and you just wish it was monday you know like yo you would be at home and if you won or if you got second off if you got fourth it doesn't matter just let it be monday like this needs to be over and i you see so it's it's it's it's lonely at the top that's what uh it's true people say is stuff like that but it's really true and yeah i could feel it for him we have an irish expression i'm not sure if you have something similar it's like the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill and i think that's so true i remember being in the us and i thought it was just like a continental level and i had a buddy that i grew up he got me into cycling he was an old school teacher and he got me into cycling and then i was out in the us and i was racing and he was still back home teaching his classroom and i got a text message off man it just said living the dream and i was getting a bus from toronto to chicago with my bike on the public transport it was like a 12 13 hour bus ride to go and do like a one-hour criterium and i was sandwiched in between like these two fat people on the bus and i was reading his text and i nearly felt like crying i was just like this is not the dream this is not my dream yeah i read the book of phil gaiman like pro on ten dollars a day you know or something like that the book is called it's about the u.s continental scene you know and like so i i i can see the the situation we're in as always you try to get bigger or to try to get to the top and it's it's never easy but in hindsight you know also the bike brought me so much fun and also i'm i'm totally not frustrated about having to leave now the world tour now it's been good to me and i'm still loving the bike right now and i that's what i that's what i uh i i i i'm happy i still have that but that's sometimes i see with colleagues they stop and they don't touch the bike for two three years or maybe longer yeah i think i had i feel sorry for them i think i can't remember one of the podcast guests maybe it was tyler hamilton that i had on and he was saying that christian vandevelt when he retired like left this bike in the bike bag for like four years and never took it out like not one right and i was like geez you got it like i i'm sure i use my i hate golf i'm pretty

Rediscovering the love for cycling

Sure i use my golf clubs more than once every four years yeah yeah like you gotta hate to leave it in the bike bike that long oh i i heard the same story for example steph command he had to retire because of back problems but the team gave him him a bike or like left him his bike but he never used it for the next two years and i was a man how many years before you retired you already hated that thing so much but you just did it for the money or the fame or just to be for the wrong reasons you know so i'm happy that i still have it but i'm all also happy for those guys because for example steph he bought a gravel bike now and he's doing cycling on another level you know in the forest and on a gravel bike so you don't have to go 30k an hour efforts anymore at least because that's on the road to standard in holland you have to do 30k an hour otherwise the right doesn't count you know and then careful you can you can blame the forest or you can blame your friends so yeah finds the law for cycling same for casting crone he was also for two three years not on the bike and now in two weeks i go for a bike pack trip together with him and tanking also bump dunking so the three retired guys are going by and that's what i like and also see christian is back on the bike so uh yeah i think it's awesome because for a long time and i know i i fell for this as well i i at a point where i taught you know i'm not going to progress in cycle i'm not going to make the step up to pro continental level i thought i need to quit cycling and then i was actually mike barry that was right for team sky was coaching me at the time and i was living in toronto and i remember talking to mike and mike's like it was like probably a week after i said i was quitting cycling he text me like you're coming for a bike ride and i was like i quit and he's like yeah you quit trying to be pro you're still going to go come raise your boy and go to a coffee shop like i was like oh yeah and it just the pendulum just dropped on me as like [ __ ] they're not the same thing i can still ride my bike with my friends and have fun and that's why i started i didn't start to try and make a career or trying to make money i started to have fun and i suppose that circles back to the second part of your career and now what you're doing looks way more fun than what you've done at the start you've moved into gravel yeah like i said i wouldn't have missed i wouldn't want to miss the the 16 years in the world too but i'm also still i'm also really happy that i'm in raffle right now and uh unfortunately 2020 was a difficult year but uh then we tried 2020 run 2021 i'm not getting any younger but i'm still sure that i'm going to have a lot of fun in those races you know and i can't wait to travel the us in may from the belgian waffle ride to do the grasshoppers to go to kansa all with a camper camper van together with a bunch of friends who also like to ride bikes and talk [ __ ] to each other afterwards you know and so how did all this come about huh how did this all come about how did the transition into gravel happen okay we have to go back to that [ __ ] yeah i had in 2015 where i was basically the same as you maybe like i'm i'm i'm fed up with it you know basically i called my managers wow i said okay i'm done with the racing in i'm done with racing in the world tour the thing you are admired to or you wanted to go to and i want to go to the us continental level i would have traded with you yeah so and he was like what do you say to me i said yeah i'm i'm done and uh because when i was 20 years old i always had to get i was rather with my uh my current wife was back then my girlfriend already and i said to her when i make it to a pro maybe i do it for 10 years because that's what you do back then when you become pro at us and then i'm 33 34 years old and the kids are still not be able to they don't have to go to school we can travel the world for one or two years you know i make enough money and we save money like we save fifty thousand we can travel the world for two years and then we go back to work and stuff like that and then i become better and better in cycling and i become i do the olympics i do the worlds i become ninth in the tour so i got better contracts you know like a lot of money and we say it's the goldman handcuffs or like my yeah so and then i i did this so and then i got 19

Pitching a family-friendly tour deal

Or two i tried to be better i tried to be skinnier i break my back i break my ribs uh i'm nothing in the tour de france like i don't know i don't know my place but not what i wanted to and i'm next to the swimming pool together with my wife and my my youngest kid who is one year old you know i'm doing like trying to make him asleep and i say to my wife what if we go to the u.s next year already she looks to me and she says what because i like i said i was making we were going in contacting negotiations for the next year and i said yeah i'm fed i'm done she said if you're sure are you sure she said i said yes okay then we go to the u.s and i still i wanted to race like i was thinking about back then it was called i think it was already rally or uh maybe jelly belly you know just yeah yeah they were good just to have to cool jersey and race with lachlan and uh then my manager told me like whoa whoa i said also u.s manager i said i'm done with it i want to go to the u.s and race bikes you know and do those crits and do a road trip with my with my team and basically being phil gaiman put on ten dollars you know and he said what if i can find you a team that you still raise the tour de france because it's still your dream race where you dreamed of as a kid right i said yeah that's still my dream race but you know i don't want to do 100 because back then in on the champs-elysees i counted 100 days back 90 days i was not at home in the 10 days i was at home at least five i was grumpy i was tired i was that's hard yeah so for my wife it hasn't been a pleasant time either and i said i want to do the tour but i want to be with my family too i said what if i can't find you a team you just do parents and catalonia and swiss and the tour and in the u.s you raise california i say okay if you find that team i shine that team but i don't think you're going to find that team at the end he found a team with some web back then it was giant opposite so i went to the us and i i started to train that winter to get to the to parinice right but you have to be a little bit competitive so uh i wan my plan was to raise the us crits yeah i had like a jersey like a black jersey without sponsorship i thought okay oh you're not allowed in as a world tour rider then so i found out that's it i found out or my manager found out usa cycling is not going to let you in one of those crits yeah i remember that [ __ ] man how do i get how do i get and shape them for perennis because all the guys all the other guys are racing and i'm here in santa cruz you know i'm having a good time but i also need some intensity you know i did the giro i did the tuesday i did the saturday right but i didn't do the i didn't do the router so then my manager said yeah there's something here in santa rosa it's called a grasshopper it's something like an insane gravel i said what what is gravel i basically said it's a cycle cross but it's not on laps of 1k but just one big lap of 50 miles i said okay yeah let's go so the guy my manager is living in mill valley arranged me a bike i go there with the whole family in the car it was two and a half hour drive from santa cruz we arrived at that race and the that king was there leave a lie prime was there jeff kabush was there it's like the glass opener scene you know suddenly now it's on cycling news but it's just like you know so i i get my number i'm on the start line and i raise that race and suddenly everybody starts to sprint and i'm like what the [ __ ] is happening but i also sprint you know and we have to climb a gate we have to climb one of those gates and and i climb and down and 50 miles of like full racing like a final of a classic you know i remember i ring it flattered on the last hill willow creek or something and that king wins the thing i think levi got to it gabous got to leave i got second boost got to it i got fought we arrived there on top of that hill there's like a pellet with or two coolers with thousand cans of beer big bags of ships you know those big u.s bags of chips and and we're starting to drink beer and eat chips and talk about the race and i'm like what the [ __ ] you know this we should do this in the world tour you know like on the champs-elysees drinking beers and eating ships together after the tour because at the end we had we had fun raising our bikes that's what was no money on

Grasshopper, Granduro and gravel beginnings

The line there was no prestige it's just we all wanted to win the [ __ ] grasshopper you know and that's where it started basically and i did a few more of those if i did lead fill but they're the early stages of gravel like this is a movement now and you were there at the early stages it was like five years ago and i did ganduro that was the second year of ganduro the which is now in japan and uk and scotland and everywhere has gone do but i did the one in quincy so the original one and yeah then it evolved from there i came back to i found back there the love was like actually 2016 i signed the contract and i said to the team it's going to be my last year and i still did 17 18 and 19 continued because i found back my real love for cycling again you know so 17 18 i raced with dumoulin the geo and the tour and 19 i was my last year at ccc so basically that grasshopper extended my career with three years that's brilliant and so how did it come about then that you're making the transition now into like you've got a bunch of sponsors behind you you're planning on like something i'd love to do getting over doing all these us races how does that happen so yeah so i'm kind of i don't know in holland we say on the name entrepreneur so i'm i'm i like to arrange things and to start new things so i came back in holland wheeler and deal are we calling here what wheeler and wheeler so i started that podcast but i also i actually i created uh some i created something like enduro but in europe so we have the same event same same format alternate refereed it's in in germany and now in this year we should have two events but because of kofit they didn't happen but i have two now two gravely fans myself oh [ __ ] i'm there next year it's on race to the podcasters yeah yeah yeah it's it's really cool always sold out you know we have so it's friday come saturday is race day saturday night is a big party a real big party and sunday we have a hangover right how do you call this in in in english a can of beers right so not a six-pack with a car oh like a keg yeah like 24 yeah like 24 beers in one oh yeah i don't know if that has a name that's just something like piss heads get when they're going on the session so so we had the first uh last year we had two uh i think 600 people and it was it was 250 250 cages of 24 bottles so everybody had like almost half a cage of bolos bears sold it's like like a rock festival last year my kids were there my youngest i organized his first rock festival i need to get over and do your event because i'm running the first so we've no gravel events in ireland but i'm running the first gravel events next year in ireland but oh cool i haven't mapped out the course and haven't really figured out the team for it yet because kovit has just been a white belt but i'll definitely have to pick your brain on that because that sounds amazing i love the hangover right idea yeah no no so so i have two events in gravel and yeah i have contacts with sponsors and stuff like that also basically also because of the events and i knew i was going to be too old to do world tour but i still wanted you know what i really like about racing that's something i'd really clear for myself what i really liked in the racing was being with the boys you know in the bus on the dinner table yeah talking [ __ ] watching girls uh talking races uh taking the piss with each other drink a beer at the bar at night stuff like that having a barbecue on the rest day and uh and also a little bit the adrenaline of of pinning a number and show your best you know on whatever level so i tried to seek that also after the career because i didn't want to be one of those cyclists being at home don't know what to do not riding your bike and divorce your wife within two years it's not good for your mental health like when i chat to some of the guys and they're just like stopped and they're piling on weight and their drink and i'm just like go back to make what makes you happy like yeah yeah so i i i realized already when i when i retired from the world tour i want that and i created that with having a small team around me the guy i do the podcast with stephen dennis the guy who does the clothing because we're also doing something in gear for clothing and and we like i said we go to the us or we hire one of those big rvs and we just travel there and having the same feeling as being on the bus maybe we take a mechanic when the budget is when a budget is enough we can take a mechanic for the whole month and have fun with four or five guys you know and trying to race and have the best

Building a European gravel platform

After tailgate barbecue afterwards you know and and make for make new friends so i yeah i pitched that plan with with my sponsors with my partners and they were they were onto it and i think i also learned from my manager who did the we did something impossible me racing you're raising a european team being a european living in the us was never happening before and now i do also something what's never been known before but it's not against the law it's just against the rules but [ __ ] the rules you know it's brilliant i talked to pete stetton on the podcast a while ago and he had the exact same like idea just going around talking to sponsors and pitching them this crazy idea going like i'm out of world tour but i don't want to let all my fitness i still want to go and raise her like all over the us and he managed to pull together some people that believed in the same dream as him and it seems like you've done the same in europe yeah yeah now basically i also have some us funding but uh yeah the thing is also i have like a platform like you have to get with my podcast i'm also still i'm also editor of bicycling the dutch version like uh i write for pro cycling uk so yeah i'm i'm i think you call it editor-in-chief and uh that's the that's the official word in uh in english that's awesome yeah so i have i have a yeah in holland and yeah i have a big platform and i can use it to to pull some strings and my my goal is to to bring the people the love for cycling and the law for the bike and they love where the bike can bring them and to bring them on new adventures you know like and and that's what my goal is for the people and i don't care if you if you re right a 200 mark plots bike or like a 12 000 s works as long as you have fun that's okay for me you know and like i love the road bike and i still i still race on the road uh over arnold you still race yeah i still do the local club racers on the road yeah i still race and catwalk stuff and it's so much fun like yeah and but you know what the more what i used to love about it was it was so elitist and exclusionary but the more the older it gets and i see friends who are scared to get into the sport i just feel like gravel is that inclusive part of cycling that we've always been missing because there's so many goofy customs that you know you and i just think are normal your socks need to be the right length your shoes need to be matching your helmet your stem has to be slammed like you've all these weird customs and you look at someone and go look at his stem look at his handlebar angle what a [ __ ] gravel wear whatever you want yeah i i also never fitted that plate actually because i was the guy who barbecued you know and don't drink beer and stuff like that also that i i really like pete i gave him [ __ ] a lot of times you know because he's like the careful pro and i play yeah i know yeah slow card you know like ted can give some [ __ ] for using the aero bars yeah yeah i give that also a lot of [ __ ] but actually we're friends already since 2016 you know when i when i lived in the us but what i because they are a little bit a younger generation in the world too than i was and what i don't like is they they are the advocates of like in the world we only had to do efforts and not drink beer not drink wine and i'm like maybe i did two real interval training a year like but those were like real interval training like i don't know how you call it you're a coach but i would go isaac boss fool and then another one full and i did three sets and it would crawl home and those were the training i was nervous of but the rest i did was what they they call like soul rights i did it all the time like 99 percent of my writing was soul rights and still and also when i got 19 at turtlefunds every night every night i drink one glass of wine like during the race like yeah also the in the welter also at home for me that was not and for me it was not the issue of i never did three glasses of wine like maximum two when i when i allowed myself another one but like it did like the world 2 wasn't is not as strict as they sometimes picture it that's what i want to say you know like for me i think the guys like pete staton are one generation after it seems like you've almost like you know we call it in religion before christ and after it's almost like before teams going after because after team sky anyone that came along it seems like they made no matter what level they were at even if they only got to you know pro conti it seems like they made sacrifices

Sustainable pro careers with Nicki Terpstra

That were just crazy like no alcohol no desserts ever no exceptions exactly the guys before that just have a little bit of a looser attitude and like you know what i try and hurt but as you say i'll live slow yeah the thing is you have to that's with everything in life but if you want to if you if you become pro you have to look at it as a long-term project it has to be sustainable so if you start to do everything right like i tried to do in 2015 i i realized in september after 10 months oh no it's not going to happen it's not going to be like that i'm not and i switched like maybe totally the other side because i moved i moved the uh the other side of the ocean but you have to like nikki tabs i train a lot with him because i live close to him and he says when you become a pro you have to make sure you find a way that you can that you can do it at least for 10 or 12 or 15 years and not for like a few months just a few months you know so that's that's the thing yeah because i see it i actually have a new client and i was talking to him the other day and i was saying to him it's it's almost sounds counter-intuitive as a phenomenon i'm saying your enthusiasm is unsustainable like you can't have how excited you are about training it's not gonna last you six months four years five years ten years this is a six week project if you don't carb your [ __ ] down like you can't have this level of enthusiasm like the dude's 15 minutes early for every training session like he's texting me like i'm here i'm like well i haven't left yet i'll be there at the [ __ ] time i said i'd be there i'm going to try together with him and i'm trying to get her one yeah okay yeah exactly like my the host of my podcast as i said we started training now and in the beginning it's always like they think they become better instantly like in and it i say is it because the training you do or is it because you're just more focused on doing the right things you know like uh maybe you train more or stuff like that and in the beginning it always seems also not too much i think you also do progression i said wait till week four there's like a four-hour night on the schedule it's a little bit raining and then you also still need to find the motivation to go out and still do it you know so it has to be sustainable and i think that's uh that's the thing uh young pros they don't need to forget and if you if you put yourself on a tail pajiro bear from the first of november i don't drink any alcohol diet you don't it it's not because you don't do it you deserve those results because everybody is doing their best and maybe the guy drinks a beer but he's still training 15 minutes longer or whatever you know like everybody is at the best at repair it's not because you didn't drink anything or you deserve that result that's not the case and that's what i talk a lot with my younger uh with my younger colleagues the last the last few years you pulled off something pretty cool this year uh i want to finish up on this one uh so dirty kanza it's in gravel it's i don't know it's the party ruby it's the world championships it's the big one whatever the the corollary is in road council this year obviously and you came up with a nice play on wards and called it dirty cancelled and you guys went and done your own thing tell us what that was all about yeah that was something i was uh i was in girona at the beginning of march so actually when things started to collapse in europe i was at a specialized lounge from uh from a new bike for journalists but i was also there on a terrace with a with an old friend i did a ride with him in december jack ultra cyclist some aussie guy who was great actually would be a nice guy guess you had him on a podcast already or not no no i haven't had him now i don't know him a few weeks ago he did the world record most kilometers in one week these guys are crazy i don't know how they do those he did the taiwan comb i did it the year he i was there he did this four times in a row i was like [ __ ] that was the hardest climb of my life i didn't want to do it any minute i gotta check him out after the show so we were thinking about he was though he was also going to do cancer but of course the xl edition like the 350 miles edition but we were on the terrace and we were like drinking a beer spanish beers and we were like okay [ __ ] when dirty cancer is not happening this year we're going to find something else and we call it dirty canceled and that idea sticks you know and then all good plans are drunken plans aren't they yeah yeah and actually like i told

The viral 200-mile lockdown ride

You about my platform and with the podcast and with bicycling and the website we tried to and with instagram and we made someone kind of a promo website and it took off it got viral it went viral it was i think every continent except of antarctica people were riding the bikes at the same time for 200 miles at 6 00 am start max 2 rest stops uh self-supported we had the same rules as in dirty kansas you had like wealth of an earth and stuff there on it as well didn't actually our plan was to make the the our dream plan would have been that vault fanart and machiavelli would do it together you know because they are enemies already like the bike would bring them together and they could hammer themselves for 200 miles you know but that didn't happen and everybody could take out what they did because stefan did it with another friend and they just enjoyed themselves for 200 miles and of course they were also really tired i really needed that adrenaline and nicki turps that too so we basically we hammered each other for 200 miles like we attacked each other and tried to be the best and also the weeks before we were thinking about our gear our training nutrition like for 200 mile right and when you want to go fast everything has to be dialed you know so especially when you're going with nikki turf street yeah yeah and also everybody had to design their own route from their house or like the house of your friend maximum two people was allowed or three people as i like to write and allowed to write in holland like the together back then and yeah everybody made the route on commute because that's the best routing thing to find all the gravel in holland and i think we had 2 000 people doing it like riding 300 kilometers on the same day it was awesome i was so proud we made a movie out of it so you can watch it on youtube oh i'm going to check it out and i'll link it up in the description for this for anyone that's listening lawrence i want to finish up on one last question that i ask all the podcast guests so if you want piece of advice one tip one training session one anything that somebody's given you or you've learned through your career that's impacted your cycling career the most what would that be okay this is this is kind of easy this isn't i i told this story more often in 2006 so i became a pro in 2004 in 2006 i was writing for a new team and i got befriended with a with the belgium guy and all the belgian kai and his name was aaron tice and i trained with him every day you know and he learned me how to train as a pro because i remember i was there like training with him what are we going to do tomorrow five hours okay five hours what are we going to do tomorrow tomorrow training how long yeah five hours okay so three days five hours what are we going to do tomorrow easy okay how long two hours okay so it was like three days on one day off and that the whole winter too basically and then in spring i i did the race it was somewhere in catalonia i think or castilla leona something like that and i became 18th on the mountain but it was the the years of us postal i think acevedo wondering so i asked why i was climbing together with finokurov and those guys yeah and he told me because i was before i was known as a time tireless he said lawrence he said i think if you lose a little bit of weight and you try to focus more on climbing you become you become yeah it's better for you because there are not so many climbers in the in in belgium and holland so you you still you stick out more you know like you will make a lot more money you will be more uh like a star or what's the yeah more popular and uh and that's what he said to me so i tried to focus on climbing since then more and then from there it started to go up yeah that's brilliant that's a great story uh lawrence thank you for your time i could chat to you all night about cycling if anyone wants to keep following on your journey after the podcast as i'm sure they will what's the best places to keep up with you i know you're all over the place yeah so basically the best is to watch it um to to to stay tuned with the website live liveslowguidefast.com and all the podcasts are on there and the clothing the the events everything is there so stay stay tuned on livslogidfast.com my instagram too basically that's my daily life you see me you see me cooking or doing some backpacking yeah cindy had a bit of chicken for dinner to hurt her off thanks for itself talk sale okay see ya bye

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Laurens Ten Dam's "Live Slow Ride Fast" philosophy?+

Laurens Ten Dam's "Live Slow, Ride Fast" philosophy is the idea that sustainable performance requires deliberate recovery away from the bike. That means prioritising quality food, good coffee, family time, and resisting the pressure of social media, so that hard training efforts are properly supported by a calm, unhurried life off the bike.

How long did Laurens Ten Dam race as a professional cyclist?+

Laurens Ten Dam raced at WorldTour level for 16 years, making him one of the most experienced professionals of his generation. He is widely recognised as one of the standout figures in professional cycling over the past decade.

What is the Laurens Ten Dam gravel camp and how did it start?+

The gravel camp grew out of a Twitter-organised ride in the Ardennes in 2011 that Ten Dam took part in during his racing career. That informal ride eventually evolved into an annual gravel camp built around the "Live Slow, Ride Fast" motto, bringing together cyclists who share the same approach to riding and living.

How did Laurens Ten Dam find balance after retiring from professional cycling?+

Ten Dam has spoken about resisting the constant pressure to perform and self-promote that follows many retired professionals into post-career life. He credits the "Live Slow, Ride Fast" mindset, centred on quality time with family, good food, and riding for enjoyment, as the foundation of the balance he has found since leaving the WorldTour.

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

Weekly insights from the podcast. The stuff that actually makes you faster.

READ THE GUIDE

The written companion to this episode.

Caffeine and Cycling Performance: The Dosing Protocol That Works

Caffeine is the most widely used performance enhancer in cycling — and one of the most evidence-backed. But most riders use it wrong. Here's…

Energy Gels for Cycling: How to Choose, Use, and Not Wreck Your Stomach

Energy gels are the most convenient fuelling option on the bike — when used correctly. Get it wrong and you're spending the rest of the ride…

5 Fixable Reasons You Can't Lose Weight While Cycling

You're riding 200km a week and the scale hasn't moved. The five reasons your cycling is working against your weight loss — and the fixes.

USE THESE TOOLS

RELATED EPISODES

More episodes you might enjoy

Episode

Community1:08:13

LACHLAN MORTON: WHY HE QUIT WORLDTOUR | ROADMAN CYCLING

Lachlan Morton joined Garmin at 19 years old, achieved everything he'd aimed for, and walked away. Not because he failed. Because high performance was costing him more than it was giving him. This episode of the Roadman Cycling podcast is the first time he's talked about that decision in any detail.

with Lachlan Morton

Episode

Community51:12

TJ EISENHART ON BREATHWORK, PRO CYCLING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN

TJ Eisenhart won the U23 National Time Trial Championship, raced for BMC, finished 12th at the Tour of Croatia in a field where the winner tested positive, and eventually walked away from professional road cycling to paint murals and ride gravel. On the Roadman Cycling podcast, he talks about what

with TJ Eisenhart

Episode

Community1:35:52

DID PRO CYCLING KILL GRAVEL? NATHAN HAAS | ROADMAN

Nathan Haas spent 10 years in the World Tour before becoming one of the first European road pros to switch to gravel. On this episode of the Roadman Cycling podcast, he makes the case that gravel is being eaten alive by the same professionalism it was supposed to escape.

with Nathan Haas

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

Join the Clubhouse to discuss this episode, ask Anthony your questions, and connect with serious cyclists.

Join the Clubhouse — Free More Episodes

Key Takeaways

KEY QUOTES

“when i did that tour de france in 2014 even on the sunday night i was already thinking about the vuelta we would start four weeks later and i was also like a team leader you know like maybe not too much food and stuff like that in hindsight that was totally crazy and also it never got better after that tour de france”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

“i tried to train more to be a little bit more skinny to do everything a little bit better and i just emptied myself myself too much and the season 2015 so the season after was like nothing was like a hell of a season”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

“i didn't even do an altitude stage like a like altitude camp and i still got 13 you know and 14 i thought okay maybe put in an altitude cam for two weeks and maybe it's better”
Laurens ten Dam — Professional cyclist, 16 years in the World Tour, Tour de France 9th place 2014

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Laurens Ten Dam's "Live Slow Ride Fast" philosophy?+

How long did Laurens Ten Dam race as a professional cyclist?+

What is the Laurens Ten Dam gravel camp and how did it start?+

How did Laurens Ten Dam find balance after retiring from professional cycling?+

LAURENS TEN DAM ON OVERTRAINING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN CYCLING

Key Takeaways

You Might Also Like

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

LACHLAN MORTON: WHY HE QUIT WORLDTOUR | ROADMAN CYCLING

TJ EISENHART ON BREATHWORK, PRO CYCLING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN

DID PRO CYCLING KILL GRAVEL? NATHAN HAAS | ROADMAN

RELATED CONTENT

LACHLAN MORTON: WHY HE QUIT WORLDTOUR | ROADMAN CYCLING

WHY CYCLISTS SHAVE THEIR LEGS: THE REAL SCIENCE | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

PAS NORMAL STUDIOS: CYCLING BRAND TO FASHION LABEL | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

LIKED THIS EPISODE?

LAURENS TEN DAM ON OVERTRAINING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN CYCLING

Key Takeaways

You Might Also Like

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

LACHLAN MORTON: WHY HE QUIT WORLDTOUR | ROADMAN CYCLING

TJ EISENHART ON BREATHWORK, PRO CYCLING & GRAVEL | ROADMAN

DID PRO CYCLING KILL GRAVEL? NATHAN HAAS | ROADMAN

RELATED CONTENT

LACHLAN MORTON: WHY HE QUIT WORLDTOUR | ROADMAN CYCLING

WHY CYCLISTS SHAVE THEIR LEGS: THE REAL SCIENCE | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

PAS NORMAL STUDIOS: CYCLING BRAND TO FASHION LABEL | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

LIKED THIS EPISODE?