Day 2 here in Maribor, well we’re actually just outside the town in the hills they call Pohorje. It’s a ski resort in the winter, and today I actually met a local who reckoned he used to do downhill in these woods 40 years ago.

The weather is hot and sunny and pit row is starting to get busy with all the teams getting set up, the smallest is some Slovenian dude in a tent in the woods the biggest is MS Intense with a humungus double decker coach stage set up. In fact it’s taken them two days so far.

Today the track was open for inspection, so we took a gander up it to see what the crack was.
It’s pretty much the same as last years, with just a few slightly altered sections. It looks mega fast and flowing, the famous rock garden looks rough, should be a good section to film at.

Me and Cunny spent most of the day cruising around interviewing folk for the up and coming Dirt TV video (out Monday), we’ve made a dead posh mic and everything.

Rachel A. trying to plug the Dirt TV mic into Brownies ear.

The 4x track opened for practise this afternoon, some of the talk was about the blind 35ft double in the woods at the bottom, but most made it look easy. It’s a steep loose track with a couple of different lines so should make for a good race.

I met Clay Porter up on the hill, F1RST has only just been released in the US and he’s back filming the next installment.

There’s a great restaurant at the bottom of the track thats really cheap and serves massive portions, most of the riders were eating a mix of pizza and pasta here, although the Slovenian national dish is sausage.

We caught up with Barel at the rock garden, he sounded pretty confident about the track and the weekend ahead. Sam Hill was a bit more cagey and just smiled when asked about how things were going.

The finish arena is taking shape.

The crash mats ready to go.

Peaty is running the new Blackbox technology, read Dirt 75 for the full exclusive story.

Apparently this is the nightclub to visit in Maribor.

At last Athy has found a local brew with his name on. (it’s Slovenian for rocket fuel)

After last weeks win in Italy Floriane Pugin could be one to watch this weekend.

This old dude lives in the Pohorje hills and told me he used to go downhilling in these woods 40 years ago, his sport these days is paragliding.

Tomorrow it’s the first day of downhill practise and of course the 4x qualification.

Stay tuned.

Maribor diaries day 2