The latest issue of the mag will be with Barry at the corner shop any day now and let’s just take a minute to enjoy one of the best whips we have seen in a long time……….It was through the lens of Sam Needham that this cracked whip was shot and apparently after he had a few beers in Les Deux Alpes. Good job he decided to head up to shoot this as Brendan seemed pretty excited when he saw it…

Ok now what else is going on in this issue

First up Mike Rose get’s his glasses all tinted looking back on the history of covers the mag has had. I’ll leave the guessing up to you but after many hours of hunting, counting and recounting we worked out which rider had landed the most covers and also who had snapped the most too. Needless to say two legends came out on top but strangely the photographer who has shot the most covers has never had one of the rider with the most!

One big feature in the mag this month is on the Coastal Crew, renowned for their sweet videos and known the world over for their trail building capabilities they have been working flat out to build the Coast Gravity Park. We got up there on the opening day and found out what’s been going on and Matthias Fredriksson shot the guys ripping down the new trails.

Steve Jones has been piloting the new Orbea Rallon in the woods round these parts for a good few weeks now and he has concluded his thoughts over pages 82-86 of this issue. Bred in Basque country Orbea have developed one hell of a bike and it’s up there with some recent favourites here at Dirt, check out the mag for the full run down.

James ‘I really like France’ McKnight has been over the channel eating his weight in French cheese and coiffing vin rouge. In between bouts of riding he put together a nice look at some of the destinations symbolic in the French MTB scene. If you are stuck for an idea of where to go before summer runs out then this is well worth a read.

All this along with an interview with Mr Scott Bikes Ben Walker, a heap more bikes and a good dose of race reporting from the EWS and downhill World Cup all stirs up to what is a belter of an issue and well worth it’s number as the 150th issue of the magazine. Here’s to another 18 years of Bicycles and Dirt Action!

If you want to get your copy of Dirt a little before Barry at the corner shop then you can subscribe right here and get it through the door before everyone else, tidy!