OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
Michael van der Mark is another example of one of those riders you can find all over the race paddocks of the world in 2015 . A double top three , in fact . As usual with Michael the first question ( in this instance , ‘ who is Michael van der Mark ?’) meets with verbal deflection served up with a dash of dry humour . “ Someone who can do nothing else and just ride a bike .” When reminded his used to drive trucks at a very young age for his father ’ s transport company , he had another verbal shield up to start , “ as long as it involves driving , it ’ s alright !” More openly , he said of how he started racing in the first place , “ I was 12 years old when I started racing . For 12 years my Dad and my Mum were really happy because I wasn ’ t interested . Then when I said I wanted to start racing my dad was happy - my mum wasn ’ t … My dad always said ‘ I want HIM to start …’ ( meaning it had to be Michael ’ s desire : ed ). He did not put me on a bike , but I did a bit of mini-biking on holidays in Spain . But even then I was not like , ‘ I want to go again tomorrow !’. But , I think even than my dad saw that I had some talent . I think I was around eight years old .” Not really a sportsman even as a child , the only thing Michael seemed to do was ride his bicycle . He played hockey - for about a week - before dropping that . That may be a regret , he confessed . “ If I knew back then how those hockey parties would be when I was a bit older , I should have stayed with hockey …” But bikes , and working / playing with his Dad ’ s trucks at the established family business at the end of his father ’ s racing career , was a big focus in his youth . Only occasionally in trouble at school , Michael appeared clever enough , but unmotivated by it all . “ I was quite lucky because I could learn quite well ,” he affirmed . “ In school it was almost a bit easier , because I wanted to be at that school , but even if I was away racing , if I had to do something for school I could learn really quick . I could have done more with school . It was like a special school where you learn a lot about transport , but also a bit of everything . I did the normal level ; I could have gone to a level higher but I did not want to because I did not like school .” Maybe simply being Dutch was the reason that VDM ended up getting into bikes , because for people who live in such a flat country with many straight roads Dutch people are almost obsessed by bikes , and bike racing especially . Why is that Michael ? “ Why not ? The Netherlands is flat but we have a lot of nice places to ride a motorcycle . And on the highway you can go flat out - at 60mph ! The area of country isn ’ t that big , so we can go to Germany near the Nordschleife , or go into Belgium into the hills . And we have all these rivers , and they all have a nice road following them .” Michael has now found himself at the centre of his country ’ s two-wheeled fascination but exactly when he realised life would take him to the top on racing is not clear . As he said , “ I always wanted to win and when you look back at my career every time there was a learning year , then a second year to start to win . We never really looked ahead at where we wanted to go , we just had to do it step-by-step . But what I knew is that I wanted to be world champion , it didn ’ t matter which class . I think the beginning of your career you just take it race by race - and you want to play with your friends when you are really young . Maybe from 2011 , moving to STK600 I was like , ‘ OK , now it is getting closer to Supersport ’, then I started to win races , then I really started to think , ‘ I have to keep doing this .’” In his regular demeanour VDM is as quietly spoken and laid back . In his
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