Quick Facts
Biography
Danny Stam (born 25 June 1972) is a retired Dutch racing cyclist, specializing in track cycling Six-day racing. He is nicknamed "De kleine diesel" (The little diesel).
Biography
Born in Koog aan de Zaan, Stam started cycling at the team of his father and four-time world champion track cyclist Cees Stam. He participated in both road cycling as well as track cycling. On the road his main skills became visible in the mountain stages, but after being part of the Rabobank talent team for a few years he did not break through to the professional team. As a result, he decided to mainly focus his career on track cycling.
His first notable result among the elite riders came in 1996 when he won the Dutch national title behind the derny. It would take him four more years to win another national title. This time he won the madison title alongside his partner Robert Slippens. The year 2000 turned out to be his final breakthrough year. Besides his second national title he also won a silver medal behind the derny and two bronze medals at the points race and 50 km time trial. Later that year Stam and Slippens represented the Netherlands at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where they took the 8th spot.
In 2001 Stam and Slippens had their first top three ranking during a Six-day cycling event, finishing third in Amsterdam. A year later they promoted their ranking into a second place. That same year they became the European Champions at the Madison beating Bruno Risi and Kurt Betschart for the gold. He also won another national silver medal at the points race. Their first Six-day racing win Stam and Slippens also achieved in Amsterdam, where they again beat Risi and Betschart in 2003. In addition they also won the Six-day cycling event of Bremen and finished second in Moscow and Ghent. They were unable to successfully defend their European title in madison, but their second place behind Andreas Kappes and Andreas Beikirch was good enough for a silver medal.
They qualified themselves for the World Championships in 2004 and won the bronze medal. They were ready for their second Olympic spell, but at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens they did not get further than the 14th spot because they were a lap behind. Afterwards they recovered quick by winning their second Amsterdam title, their second Dutch madison title as well as their first six-day win in Ghent and Rotterdam in early 2005. Later in 2005 they won another silver medal at the World Championships at the madison in Los Angeles behind Mark Cavendish and Robert Hayles. Their most successive year to date was 2006 when they won the six-day events of Rotterdam, Bremen, Berlin and Copenhagen together. Due to an injury Slippens was ruled out and Stam started to ride with several other riders. With Peter Schep he claimed the victory in the Amsterdam event and they also won the silver medal at the European Championships in Ballerup. Alongside Jens Mouris he won a World Cup madison event in Moscow, all in 2006. While at the World Championships 2007 in Palma de Mallorca he and Schep won another silver medal.
In 2008 Stam started in the Six-day event of Rotterdam again together with Slippens, but he had to withdrew after one day. Because Leif Lampater's team mate Andreas Beikirch also got injured Stam and Lampater were riding together starting at day 2 of the event, chasing the leading three teams by 2 laps. Eventually they won the event with a lap in advantage of the rest of the pack.
In 2010 Stam joined the leontien.nl cycling team, and remained with the team in 2011, transitioning from being a rider to a team director. In 2013 Stam joined Boels–Dolmans as team manager.
