Trek CXC Cup

A week ago was the Trek CXC Cup, ya, i'm a bit behind on things, but I haven't really thought to write until now, while sitting in a hotel room, after racing some DH and having the XC race get cancelled because of to much rain. But thats a different story. The Trek CXC Cup was my first real cross race where I could test my legs against everyone else. I was really excited seeing how the race was hosted by Trek at Trek World Headquarters in Waterloo, WI. Day number 1 was a bit overcast but no rain. When I arrived, I went inside Trek to register and to check out the sweet bikes they had displayed. I think the 2 coolest ones were Fabians winning Paris Roubaix bike that was still dirty and Katie Compton's National Champ bike, still dirty. Fabians bike was tricked out with some sweet stuff. Just a couple things were his derailleur cage was beefed up and full carbon, his cranks/chain rings I believe were a bit different and the sick Spartacus paint job. Onto the race. It was a fun course with a steep climb near the start, a set of barriers, a tricky little decent, and a lot of fast corners. I pre rode the course 3 times before racing and felt really comfortable with it all. I rode the steep hill in practice but didn't try it until day 2 during the race. When it got to be race time, they called you up by how you registered, so I was 6th row, number 56 out of 85ish. When the ref blew his whistle, I knew I had to move up as fast as possible. I snuck up the right side of the start straight and about 1/2 way in I was sitting top 10 and moving up. Each lap I tried to catch the leaders, but starting so far back they had about a 30-40 second lead already. I still pushed and caught people each lap and ended up 6th, missing 5th by 6 seconds. Not expecting much, I was really happy with this, a great result to start the weekend. Then on day 2 it was the same stuff just a different day. The course changed slightly but it was for the better. Corners smoothed out and the descent was changed and was a little bit more tricky. Then after riding it a couple times it was race time. Got called up this time 58th out of 100 or so. I knew I had the legs to move up and thats exactly what I did. I was top 10 before the steep hill, which was about 1-2 minutes in. I pushed hard to catch the leaders, but seeing how day 2 was a UC 1, a couple more faster guys came out and drove the pace. I never caught them, but I did manage to hold position and ended up sprinting for 7th with Mike M, a friend of mine. He got me and I took 8th. My race was great, I felt fast and I finished 1min 10 faster then day 1.  Now after getting a taste of cross, I want more!! But with collegiate still going on, its back to MTB racing for me.