Mirjam Pol shares her thoughts on what makes racing Dakar Rally so special? For Mirjam, competing in Dakar means racing the ultimate of extreme adventure, facing the most difficult challenges head on, and finding strength of mind, body, and heart to cross the finish line full of pride and honour on being able to take part.
For sure, Mirjam possesses rare commodity of humility when speaking about Dakar, which remains evident in tone of voice and expression of words when describing how Dakar affects everyday thinking on racing the iconic event. From sharing her knowledge on what it takes to race 15 days in Saudi Arabia, to pin-pointing exact strategies on how to deal with the daunting task of racing 8,549kms of which 4,706kms will be timed in 2023 Dakar – Mirjam exhibits true sense of Dakar Spirit – to help others achieve same success.
Entering her 10th Dakar, Mirjam hardly draws breath on where it all began. Why? Well, Mirjam was quite satisfied when she completed her first Dakar in 2006 at mere age of 22 years. Then, the result of 80th spurred deeper desire to have another go, to see how this great Dakar Experience has the ability to push each and every competitor to their limits, and beyond.
As Mirjam says: ‘what is so special about racing Dakar is probably the hardest question you can ask as there is not an easy answer for it. Of course it’s the highest thing we can achieve – it’s the longest and the toughest Rally race in the world. During the day you get a lot of challenges and also a lot of frustrations. But it’s an incredible feeling after a really tough day crossing the finish line knowing you had so many challenges and you just made it.
The challenges you get, they will show you where your limit is and then of course it’s a race – it will push you over. It’s trying to push your limits to the next level and that’s some kind of feeling more or less we get every day. It makes Dakar so special. The most difficult thing is if you discuss this with other bike riders most of the time you don’t even have to explain because they understand. If you tried to explain this to non-bike riders it’s a real challenge because we think more or less on different levels and that’s what makes this question for me a lot of fun to answer. I hope it makes sense’.
To race Dakar 10x carves Mirjam’s name in history books, confirming that a woman can achieve Dakar success on level playing field against male competitors, along with providing inspiration for younger females to pursue racing career goals. From finishing 80th in 2006, 49th in 2007, 53rd in 2009, 66th in 2011, 95th in 2018, 48th in 2019, 41st in 2020, and 49th in 2022, Mirjam has perfected her race-craft, preparation, and planning to race Dakar to successful conclusion.
2022 season has been exceptional year for the Dutch rider. Mirjam competed and won both FIM World Cup of Cross Country Baja’s Women Championship and FIM Rally Raid World Woman Championship rounding out final preparations to race 2023 Dakar Rally which kicks off on December 31 in Saudi Arabia. For certain, the new face of 2023 Dakar, racing 15 days across the entire continent of Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea to Arabian Gulf will be the most challenging of Dakar’s which includes racing 4 day’s in the Empty Quarter. As described by Dakar’s top man David Castera: ‘”this gigantic zone in which sand is king, especially in its most majestic form: dunes”‘.
Mirjam describes how racing World Rally Raid Championship and World Cup for Cross Country Baja’s helps preparations to race Dakar: ‘I’ve done several Baja races, several Rally races and for me it was like a perfect season. Every race I started from 2022 Dakar, to the World Championship races I won, so at the end of this year I have two World Championship Titles: one of Baja and one of Rally. It couldn’t be any better than that.
For me there’s a really big difference – huge difference – between Baja and Rally. I race Baja especially for my mindset and my speed because it’s only two or three days and you have to perform directly from the first second you are on the bike. You have to go all in – 100% because you only have two or three days of racing.
When I race Rallies I tend to hold back, I keep a reserve of spare energy because a Rally race could be a week, it could be two weeks. Racing Dakar, you never know what will happen during the day or during the week or even on the last day. It’s really important to keep a little bit of a reserve but not too much. So sometimes, I have the feeling I am losing some speed and cruising around when I’m racing a Rally. That’s why I started racing Baja’s because my speed gets up and you have to be like 100% focused from the very first second’.
Analyzing how Mirjam plans, prepares, and actions strategies pre-during and post racing begs the question how does Mirjam respond to the unexpected? And, how does Mirjam navigate circumstances and situations which test her mettle to face and overcome the myriad of unknown factors which will arise on route over the course of 15 days in Saudi’s desert.
Mirjam: ‘When I have big problems or big challenges I try to make them like smaller. I mean take one day at a time because the challenge is big enough. Even if one day at a time – if the challenge is too big – then take it one step at a time.
If you cannot make it like from one day at a time then try to go – not from start to finish – but try to go from start to fuel stop. And then from fuel stop to the next fuel stop and from the last until the finish – because your next goal has to look like as if you can reach it.
If your next goal is miles and miles and miles away and you get the feeling that OK I will never ever make it that’s not good for you mentally. So then you can start feeling like OK I will never ever make it.
So that’s when I’m really having an off day I try to make the race a little bit smaller for myself. If it’s like a 600kms race then at 100kms I think I already have 100kms done, and after the 200kms I know I’m halfway at the fuel stop. I think ah I’m already at the fuel stop. If I did this first part I can also do the second part. So, if you are having an off day or you have big problems, I just try to take it like one step at a time and then of course we try to enjoy everything that happens too’.
Words of wisdom, words worth gold to those reading, and words to carve in stone for what they transmit to the faint hearted wanting to know what makes racing Dakar Rally so special. Only Mirjam Pol knows the truth of that answer, but she sure has shared what she holds dear to fans world-wide.
2023 Dakar Rally December 31 – January 15. Header photo: Mirjam Pol Image: @htrallyraid
Words: Sharon Cox.
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