Laurens ten Dam will be one of Blanco's leaders at the Tour de France. (Image credit: Barry Ryan)
It isn't every rider who can do back-to-back grand tours and still manage to crack the top-10 in the general classification of the second one, but Blanco's Laurens ten Dam is one of the special few. At 32, the Dutch rider now takes a calm approach to his early season training, laying down massive numbers of base kilometers in camps such as the one his team undertook in Andalucía.
In this video, ten Dam talks about what kind of training he does. "I'm a guy who trains a lot. I do a lot of kilometers and I like to do long training riders, but I think my body can handle it," he said.
"Experience is a nice thing. At 32 I know I'm a good cyclist. I don't have to be scared, one bad day here is not a bad season. If I feel one day not good, I laugh about it and the next day will be better. You know your capabilities and you do the things you have to do."
With age comes the physical and mental toughness needed to get through big blocks of training and racing, and one day more or less on the bike doesn't make a big difference.
"For example last year I did the Tour de France, 21 days of racing in 23 days, and then I did 10 days of criteriums - so I did 31 races in 33 days. And I still got 8th in the GC of the Vuelta which started two weeks later."
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
