Laurens ten Dam sets best time at non-stop Transcordilleras Rally Colombia

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Laurens ten Dam set a new best time at the non-stop Trancordilleras Rally Colombia, completing the 1,045km self-supported gravel adventure on Wednesday morning in Santa Fe de Antioquia in 72 hours, 55 minutes. 

For a ride that covered 21,600 metres of climbing across the three Andes mountain ranges in Colombia, it was ‘close’ in terms of the overall win, as Canadian Rob Britton completed his first trip at the event in 48 minutes behind the Dutchman. Twenty five other riders remained on the course after the lead duo stopped the clock, including Thomas Dekker, who was still on the route with just under 400km still to ride, according to a live tracker system.

Once across the finish, Ten Dam wasn’t thinking about a celebration just yet, just a shower, solid food and being stationary for a good while, telling Cyclingnews, “I’m not going anywhere today”. 

Ten Dam and 29 others set off at 7:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, February 11. Following the ‘Lachlan program’, 18 hours of riding followed by six hours of rest used by Lachlan Morton to complete Tour Divide last year, Ten Dam made his first stop just after 10 p.m. that evening, having covered 269km. He was back on the bike four hours later.

On the second segment he covered 283km before taking a self-imposed six-hour break this time, and restarting in the darkness at 1:23 a.m. early Tuesday morning. He stopped after another 300km later after nightfall for a nap of about an hour, then pushed on to the finish, the clock stopping at 8:03 a.m. local time on February 14. 

“I saw Rob coming so decided let’s make a race,” he disclosed to Cyclingnews at the finish. "Thanks Rob for a hard fought battle. It makes me more proud on this one."

He had good reason to respect Britton, who last year set a course record at the Spanish 750km gravel race, Badlands, in a time of 35 hours and 20 minutes. The Canadian had been riding in third place until Tuesday morning, hovering just 7km behind Colombian Xavier Chiriboga with 311km to go.

“Laurens absolutely brought his A-game and it’s always impressive to see what he’s able to put out. In the end, it was a pretty close battle between Laurens and myself. I made one final push to go all-in for the final 24 hours, but had some bad luck with my lights so I had to spend time fixing that,” Britton told Cyclingnews.

“Having done a few ultra-distance events, I know how much damage they can do to your body and I was leery of going all-in for a true non-stop this early in the year. So I decided to sleep the first couple of nights. It was always interesting to see who pushed through the night and who decided to stop and where. Can’t wait to come back!”

In 2022 when the non-stop category was added to the eight-day stage race, only 12 riders took on the new challenge. Two years on, the number soared to 30 individuals, three of them women.

It was a third trip to Transcordilleras for Ten Dam, the earlier appearances in the eight-day stage race. He finished second to winner Peter Stetina in 2022, then won the overall last year. He and Dekker are using the non-stop Transcordilleras race as preparation for Tour Divide, when they plan to use the Lachlan system to reach his marker of 12 days, 12 hours and 21 minutes to complete the 2,670-mile route from Banff in Canada's Rocky Mountains to Antelope Wells in New Mexico.