The Dirt advance party, me (Billy) and Cunny arrived in Maribor late this afternoon. The plane out from Stanstead was rammed with British riders, with the Athertons, Beaumont, Donny, Braithwaite, Moseley and Gaskell all trying to bagsy the best seats.

There was more bagsy-ing going on in the queue for the hire cars at Graz airport for the short sprint to Maribor. Looks like Moseley got the holeshot from the hire car grid with the Athertons close behind. Cunny and me got stitched up when my last minute cheap as chips deal went tits up leaving us with no car.

The finish arena was still being built, nobody has walked the track yet so we’ve yet to find out if it’s the same as last years.

Peaty and Minnaar were ragging around on their xc bikes, Gracia has cocked his other wrist up, Lehikoinen was looking fit despite his back still giving him a bit of grief, Fairclough looked relaxed, no sign of Hill though. Dirt 75 cover boy JD Swanguen was waltzing around.

The track will be open for a walk and an inspection tomorrow, so we’ll let you know what she’s like.

The Nissan trucks were just rolling into town.

Cunny was quite taken with his complementary slippers.

Maribor hots up