Laurens ten Dam reflects on navigating cycling’s darkest era: “If I notice anything, I'll end it”

Laurens ten Dam turned professional in 2004, and by the time he joined Rabobank in 2008, the cycling world was still reeling from years of doping scandals. Just a year earlier, the sport had endured the fallout of the infamous Michael Rasmussen incident at the Tour de France. It was a turbulent time to be stepping into the WorldTour, a time when suspicion lingered and integrity in the sport was still being rebuilt.

In a recent appearance on the podcast Clubhuis Team Lucas, Ten Dam opened up about what it was like to make his way as a young rider during that era. Remarkably, he speaks without bitterness toward those who cheated. "I never got frustrated about that," he said, referring to the riders who doped during his early years in the peloton.

Ten Dam’s journey through cycling was shaped as much by who surrounded him as by what was happening in the sport at large. "I joined the Bankgiroloterij in 2004 and had won two races as a junior," he explained. "I was not Thomas Dekker, who was used to winning a lot. I looked up to Matthé Pronk, who was outspokenly anti-doping. He wanted to be able to tell his children that his health had not suffered from taking the wrong things."

Influences like Pronk helped guide Ten Dam through a career defined by clean racing, even while others around him were making different choices. He also worked with Rudi Kemna, and later moved to Unibet, where he came under the guidance of Andre Mihailov, a doctor with a complicated history in the sport, having worked for TVM in the 1990s. Yet even Mihailov, Ten Dam says, steered him away from doping.

"But he said: 'You got a gift from God.' He said that I should never dope. He said to me: 'I also did EPO, but I only did more in the race and rode a bit faster, but I didn't win anymore.' It only gave him stress and hassle, he said."

Ten Dam's progression through the ranks was steady. He began earning €22,000 as a neo-pro, with his salary doubling when he joined Unibet, and doubling again after that. When he finally arrived at Rabobank, he got his first opportunity to ride the Tour de France, and crucially, it coincided with a change in the team’s internal culture.

"That's when the zero-tolerance policy came into effect. So I've made it through quite well," he recalled. He reflected on the paths of other riders with whom he came up, and how easily things could have gone differently. "Then it might have been different. Theo quit after three years, Thomas went to Vienna with Boogerd. And I was with two people who advised me against it. I was also a bit lucky in that respect."

But perhaps the strongest influence of all came from outside the sport. Ten Dam credits his wife, Thessa, with helping to keep him grounded and focused on doing things the right way. "She said, 'If I notice anything, I'll end it.' She was a high school teacher. She said, 'If colleagues say you've driven so well, but I know the fridge is full of EPO, how am I supposed to talk to those people?'"