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Mirjam Pol satisfied with performance in Spanish Baja

After the prologue on Friday, in which Mirjam was not in her element at all, she got on the right feeling again in the first real race day. In the end, she managed to finish fourth in the general classification, leaving big names behind her. In this blog we’ll tell you more about her race weekend.

The Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in Spain was held in the weekend from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 April.

Good feeling

Mirjam may have had to acknowledge her superiority to Spain's Sara Alverez but she still looks back on the 2023 Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura with a good feeling. "Last weekend I rode well. For myself, I can say that, because of the conditions that don't suit me so much, I was challenged to step up my pace again. And that once again worked out well. Actually, it is a continuous learning process with the ultimate goal of mastering all types of terrain as well as possible so that I can be optimally 'all-round' in the Dakar rally."

Leaving big names behind

Mirjam finished fourth in the overall FIM ranking and left some big names behind her. Mirjam: "Guys I really couldn't keep up with last year have now finished behind me. It gives me a good feeling that I can keep up with the top and that I am not inferior to the top riders in the classification. Meanwhile, I keep gaining World Cup points and that too gives a good feeling."

"Yes, of course it is a pity that I did not win but the feeling that I rode well and therefore can still improve is really dominating at the moment!" she said. At the end of this competition day, the difference between the Spanish and Pol turned out to be only 1.53 minutes. She once again scored points for the women's classification but also for the 450CC classification in the FIM Baja World Cup 2023.

In Spain, she could count on the assistance of Henkjan Somsen again, which gave her peace of mind in the preparation and of course during the race.

Come back after a rough start

During the prologue, Mirjam was not quite in her element. She did not like the fast 5.8-kilometre track with a lot of stones, gravel and broken asphalt. Nevertheless, she did manage to ride in the top ten. Even though she rode the fastest time among the women, Mirjam was not really satisfied with her ranking because a number of riders had finished ahead of her, whom she can normally also stay ahead of. "In short: motorcycle is fine, I was not comfortable on it, the terrain is really not nice," Mirjam said about the prologue.

On the first real race day, Mirjam seemed to have got the right feeling again. "It went a lot better! The feeling was there again and even though I was bothered by the dust, I managed to overtake several riders", Mirjam said. She managed to come back just fine and with a 6th time in the first special and a 5th time in the second special, Mirjam ended up fifth in the overall standings after Saturday's race, with only the fast Spanish Sara Garcia Alvarez in front of her. She was fourth in the overall standings with a 5-minute lead.