Ten Dam retired from the WorldTour in 2019, after 13 years as a road professional. The Dutch climber finished ninth in the general classification<\/a> of the 2014 Tour de France<\/a>, riding for Rabobank.<\/p> Post-retirement, the 43-year-old has switched to gravel racing<\/a>, coming second to Ian Boswell in the 2021 Unbound Gravel<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> The Specialized-supported rider tends to ride the brand\u2019s S-Works Diverge STR Expert<\/a> or Crux <\/a>in gravel events. But he chose the S-Works Roubaix SL8<\/a> at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> There was a mix of gravel bikes<\/a> and mountain bikes<\/a> at Transcordilleras, which mostly runs along dirt roads and rougher gullies.\u00a0<\/p> Ten Dam told BikeRadar his coach said to him mid-race that \u201cit must be hell out there\u201d.<\/p> \u201cAnd that’s exactly what it was because it was so hot,\u201d said ten Dam.<\/p> Despite his \u201cimprovised setup\u201d, he said: \u201cI\u2019m really happy with how it turned out.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019ve done a few ultras, but only 500s [kilometres]. This is the first 1,000 I\u2019ve done and I won, so it turns out I\u2019m pretty good at it.\u201d<\/p> Ten Dam experienced back pain the last time he raced an ultra-endurance event<\/a> on his Diverge.<\/p> After Further Elements in October 2023, a 450km race in Scotland, ten Dam said: \u201cI was so thrashed I almost couldn’t ride home from the boat to my house because my back was hurting so badly.\u201d<\/p> Explaining his decision to choose a Specialized S-Works Epic World Cup<\/a> this time, he said: \u201cYou ride parts of the night and spend 18 hours a day on your bike, so it’s good to have some more comfort.\u201d<\/p> Ten Dam said the terrain at Transcordilleras was \u201creally rough\u201d.<\/p> \u201cThere are some roads, but Colombian gravel is not like Steamboat [a fast, US gravel race].\u00a0<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s a loose surface and there are rocks on descents you might go down in the night.\u201d<\/p> He fitted a mix of MTB and gravel components to the full-suspension mountain bike<\/a> from his partners Specialized and Shimano and their in-house brands.\u00a0<\/p> Most notably, the former road professional chose a 40cm-wide Pro Discover gravel handlebar<\/a> with a 20-degree flare, a matching 80mm stem and aero bars.\u00a0<\/p> The majority of the drivetrain is the new Unstoppable version of 12-speed Shimano GRX<\/a>, including a 10-51t cassette.\u00a0<\/p> But ten Dam made a last-minute decision to switch the 42t GRX crank for a 36t XTR ring.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cI’m so happy. I changed that the day before the race,\u201c he said.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cLast year, I did it with a 40-46 [smallest gear] on my Diverge STR, but I was more happy with the 36-51 \u2013 it was sufficient, I didn\u2019t need any more gears.\u201d<\/p> Ten Dam said the \u201creally rough\u201d terrain at Transcordilleras influenced his decision to fit sturdy 29×2.2in Specialized Renegade Grid mountain bike tyres to his bike\u2019s Roval Control SL wheels.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cOn every downhill, I was confident I wasn\u2019t going to flat, so I was really happy with them.\u201c<\/p> Ten Dam didn\u2019t puncture, but rode the last day with two broken spokes in the front wheel.<\/p> \u201cSomehow, the wheel stayed straight, even though I was sending it on the downhills because Rob [Britton, in second] was chasing me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p> A 142mm-wide Pro Stealth Offroad saddle finished off the build.\u00a0<\/p> Ten Dam brought two Wahoo Elemnt Bolts <\/a>to avoid a repeat of his experience at Further Scotland. His bike computer <\/a>running out of battery left him without navigation for the final 50km in that event.<\/p> He brought a 2,000mAh power bank and fast charger to top up the batteries of his head unit and Exposure head torch<\/a> and Toro Mk7 front light<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> The desire to conserve battery caused him to dim the light beam on ascents. As a result, he is weighing up whether to fit a dynamo hub<\/a> for the Tour Divide.\u00a0<\/p> Ten Dam said: \u201cI took more than most of the competitors over here because I really treated it as a test ride for Tour Divide<\/a>.\u201d<\/p> This meant the Dutchman\u2019s list of spares read like a small bike shop\u2019s Monday morning order: two spare tyres, tyre boots, 100ml tubeless sealant<\/a>, two derailleur hangers, chain links, a multi-tool<\/a>, an electronic bike pump<\/a> and a Leatherman knife.\u00a0<\/p> He also brought a bivvy bag and some spare clothes he didn\u2019t end up using.\u00a0<\/p> All this went into Restrap top tube and handlebar bags, and an Apidura saddle bag.\u00a0<\/p> He carried a hydration bladder on his pack. But for the Tour Divide, he\u2019d like to source a custom frame bag to hold the bladder.\u00a0<\/p> Thanks to the regular resupply opportunities in villages on the route, ten Dam said he didn\u2019t need to carry much food. He fueled off a combination of bocadillos, pizza and Haribo.\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n We take a closer look at the bike ten Dam rode non-stop for three days across the Andes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":59792,"template":"","categories":[1,36],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup.jpg",1534,1025,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup.jpg",1534,1025,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/02\/laurens-ten-dam-sets-1050km-transcordilleras-fkt-on-drop-bar-specialized-s-works-epic-world-cup.jpg",1534,1025,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"We take a closer look at the bike ten Dam rode non-stop for three days across the Andes","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/59791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Laurens](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/DSC00132.jpg\")
Full-suspension with drop handlebars<\/h3>
![\"Laurens](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/DSC00097.jpg\")
Mismatched drivetrain\u00a0<\/h3>
![\"Collage](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/ltddrivetraincollage.jpg\")
Heavy-duty tyres\u00a0<\/h3>
![\"Laurens](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/DSC00117.jpg\")
Two Wahoo Bolts\u00a0<\/h3>
![\"Laurens](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/ltdcockpitcollage-1.jpg\")
A bike shop\u2019s worth of spares<\/h3>
![\"Apidura](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/02\/DSC00121.jpg\")
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"