Background
Born in Koog aan de Zaan, Stam started cycling at the team of his father and four-time world champion track cyclist Cees Stam.
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 is nicknamed "De kleine diesel" (The little diesel). 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.
The year 2000 turned out to be his final breakthrough year. 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.
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. Due to an injury Slippens was ruled out and Stam started to ride with several other riders. 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.
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.
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.