By Max Beard

The weekend of June 25-27, RPM Yeti voyaged on to beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado for the Wildflower Rush, the fourth stop of the Mountain States Cup Series. We were blessed with ideal weather conditions all weekend long, and we were privileged to have our pit area on smooth concrete for this race, which made for a great looking pit setup right next to the Yeti Factory Team!

The annual Fat Tire Festival was hopping down along Main Street in downtown Crested Butte all weekend. We all got to witness the festivities going on while on our way to dinner in the evening.

"Crested Butte is always one of my favorite stops on the MSC, but this year they changed up the four cross added more to the downhill and made it state championships so the experience was even better," said Junior rider Matt Branney. "The four cross course was pretty awesome to ride because it just had some features that were new to me. At the start they had three berms in a row which were all pretty loose and that added a lot of passing to the race. Then after that they threw in a section of Moto whoops that were rough and in a slow speed section so that was interesting. And then just when you thought you were done they added in a nice jump section to finish it off.” Matt finished 3rd in four cross for the junior men 12-14 class.

"The weekend at Crested Butte was challenging for me. In four cross, I had great qualifiers but the race runs were a bit more difficult for me. Happy that I was able to qualify for nationals though," said junior rider Wyatt Freier. He placed in the junior men 12-14 class.

Matt also mentioned, "The downhill course was a lot of fun last year and this year in my opinion they made it even better. They added a few berms in high speed section and they just changed a few things here and there. The downhill course at Crested Butte has always been pretty pedally and this year it still was again. Times had gotten a little longer as compared to last year’s times because of the new features the crew added. At the ended instead of having the old "booter" jump they ran us through the trees then threw a couple of berms and then off a wood drop into some berms and then the finish line was there. I really liked the course all in all. I had a great time racing there again." Matt placed 1rst in the junior men 12-14 class for downhill making him the Colorado State Champion!

Wyatt stated that "Downhill was a really good course and I am pleased with my results placing in the top 10. The weekend was a great learning experience. I had a lot of fun." Wyatt placed 10th in the junior men 12-14 class.

Junior rider Sean Geisler placed 25th in the Cat 2 men 15-18 class for downhill. "I had a good run, but I felt like I could have gone faster. This race was definitely an improvement from the last because I had a lot more fun with it and didn’t take it so seriously," said Sean.

I personally had a great time racing downhill this weekend. The new wooded section towards the bottom of the track also made great entertainment for the spectators! It felt exciting to speed into the bottom of the course with tons of people cheering and making some noise! I placed 9th in the Cat 1 men 19-29 class, and I was very happy to get a top 10 result! It was another good weekend of development for the juniors. They are all still learning a lot and continue to grow with each race.

The Yeti Demo Tour also made an appearance this weekend! Nick and Joe (Yea that’s right, BIG JOE!) did a great job giving everyone a chance to Demo a Yeti bike on the great trails that Crested Butte has to offer. I had never seen the demo tour before, and I was very impressed when I decided to demo a bike. They are very informative and enthusiastic about the Yeti fleet and that was great to see!

Check out the PHOTO GALLERY HERE for more images from the 2010 Wildflower Rush!