Former professional rider Laurens ten Dam will become the new national coach of Dutch women's road, effective January 1, 2025, the country's KNWU federation announced Thursday.

As Gravel's national coach, ten Dam will replace the retiring Roos Gunnewijk, who had been national coach since 2019 after the Netherlands' success in winning both world titles with Mathieu van der Pol and Marianne Foss in Leuven.

Ten Dam was a professional for 16 years, from 2004 to 2019, and has since spent most of his time racing for fun in the growing gravel scene. However, this past year as a national coach has completely rekindled his desire for elite competition, prompting him to take on this new role when the opportunity presented itself.

“While working as Gravel's national coach, I realized that I really missed performing at the highest top sporting level, working together as a group for major competitions like the World Championships,” Ten Dam said in a KNWU release. [As an experienced expert, I approach this adventure without prejudice. They must trust me and I expect the same in return.

“It's about building a team with a clear mission. There is a lot of talent in women's cycling in the Netherlands.

The Dutch women's team, led by coach Gunwijk, has been widely criticized for its tactics in recent seasons. Coach Tendam knows that it will not be easy to lead the orange team, given the enormous pressure placed on the girls.

“My advantage is that I have no past with the players at all. So I can be very objective. That's probably one of the reasons they asked me to do it. I am very aware that we still have things to discuss here and there,” ten Dam told the Algemeen Dagblad.

“I cannot judge past mistakes. But it is clear that I do not want an argument. It starts with honesty. We are going to have a clear agreement on everyone's role in the race. We have to agree on that."

In the past two world championship road races and the Olympic road race, the Netherlands has failed to qualify, despite having a number of strong riders. Ten Dam is aware that he must turn the tide, but at the same time he is not underestimating his opponents.

“Being a national coach is a difficult job. Holland has great players. You have to take advantage of that,” the 43-year-old said.

“But it is no longer a ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ exercise for the Dutch women to always win it all. The sport has changed. Some women run in front wearing [other countries'] jerseys. That can only be good for the sport."

”But like I said, we have a lot of good riders. If there is a group of 30 people left at the World Championships, there are usually nine Dutch women in that group."

”We have a lot of good riders.

Ten Dam hopes to restore the winning culture that saw Dutch women win seven of the 11 World Championship road races between 2012 and 2022, with an evaluation at the end of 2025 and the LA Olympics in 2028.

“I will definitely have to be tough. That's part of this job. But I'm not going to pretend to be someone else. I like a good atmosphere and that's the foundation of my success. The best atmosphere comes when you win a lot of victories.”

“Being a national coach is a difficult job. You only get to see the girls a few times a year. They compete with each other all season long and all of a sudden they are teammates in orange. So it's really hard to form a group, but I think I can do it.”