Mirjam is the daughter of former Dutch Champion grass track racing and sidecar motocrosser Hans Pol, who passed away too early 13 years  ago at the age of 50. In the spirit of her husband, her mother Ine together with daughter Mirjam and sun Hans continued racing in motocross. Mirjam went to grammarschool in Borne, where the family runs a fuelstation and garage. After highschool she finished her study at the Acadamy for Physical Education, from which she graduated in Groningen in 2005. Dakar was still a dream but piece by piece converted to reality. 

The story started 25 year ago, watching for the first time The Dakar on "auto moto" a french motorsport TV show. Even if in Canada nobody knew about this amazing race, it injected me it's virus.
In 98, after only 10 hours total of motorcycle experience, I sent my KLR650 (which was totally not adapted for rallying) in Granada in order to participate in the Atlas Rallye in Morroco. I had several crashes a day, loosing half the bike in the desert, getting towed by a camel to start the kickless bike and winning the trophy for perseverance and I also became the first Canadian ever to participate in an African Rally Race.

After having worked for the team as a mechanic, for Gerben Vruggink a long fulfilled dream comes true: competing in the Dakar on a bike. Gerben has been active in motocross and enduro his entire life, and participated in several rally's in the past years to gain more experience. The speed and technical knowledge are there, after a year of intensive training he's ready for his first Dakar!