It’s August 13. The first race of the season is 23 days away. Despite the fact that we’ve had an unreasonable amount of cyclocross-worthy weather all “summer” here in Seattle, us Kittens are getting pretty damn excited for the Fall.

Shiny new parts have been ordered through team sponsor Recycled Cycles. Race bikes are getting reassembled. Our skinsuits will be en route to Seattle any day now; Big George just has to finish hand sewing each chamois on his Tour of Utah rest days. We as a team have been out in the field every week dialing in our cross skillz.

There’s also been a whole lot of practice racing. Cross Club is at it again this year and though it’s getting a little too big for its britches (30 racers + spectators apparently draws the ire of Seattle’s upstanding park dwellers) it’s been great for the fitness and a solid reminder of what it’s like to race around in the dirt elbow to elbow with a bunch of other jokers in spandex. Some of our Kittens are looking mighty fast this year. If I was a betting man I’d put some money on seeing pink on the podium this season. Not me, of course. I’m pack fodder, but John, Andrew F, Noah, and Dylan are pretty quick out there.

And, finally, I’ve been engaging in the most important pre-season ritual a self-respecting cyclocross racer can do. Watching cross videos on CrossTube. If this doesn’t get you psyched up for cross, you might just want to reconsider racing:

With all of the social rides, long road rides, and general shenanigans that the members of Soft Like Kitten have been up to in the past few months, it would be easy to forget that SLK was conceived as a cyclocross team.  While it’s still not really officially cyclocross season, we were lucky enough to get a little taste of what’s to come this fall, courtesy of a highly unorthodox summertime CX race put on by Raleigh.

The race was up in Roslyn, WA, on the other side of the Cascades from Seattle.  That fact, coupled with the fact that it was July instead of November, meant that the race was a much drier and dustier affair than your typical Seattle-style CX race.  In fact, after passing one particularly fitting road sign on the way back from the race, we dubbed it “The Big Dirty”:

After blowing dirt out of my nose for 2 days, I couldn't agree more.

Jason Dul kicked off SLK’s CX racing career by destroying the beginner men’s race and taking the win.  The race announcers were quick to pronounce Soft Like Kitten a team composed entirely of sandbaggers.

Jason Dul showing the beginners how it's done.

Seth Howard and Christopher Gay represented in the Cat 4 races (sorry guys, didn’t get any good pics!), with myself and Michael Mabale putting in solid efforts in the Cat 3s.  Hardly a race went by all day without a pink-clad heartthrob in it.  This team’s spectating/heckling/handup scene is going to be great this year, I can already tell.

Yours truly running up the Big Dirty

Just look at those quads!

John Whitenack, one of the fastest kittens around, put in a pretty stunning effort in the über-competitive Singlespeed race, coming in 11th in a field full of wicked-fast racers.  All this, despite eating shit a couple times going down the Big Dirty’s tricky descent.

John is singlespeedy

I think the general consensus amongst the team members at the end of the day was something along the lines of “holy shit, I forgot how hard cyclocross is……when can we do this again?”  It’s tantalizing to see what this fall is shaping up like, and having a kick-ass team to share racing and beers with is the icing on the proverbial cake.

All race and no relax makes Jack a dull boy

Big props to Raleigh and MFG Cyclocross for putting on a really fun race, and thanks to kitten Seth for all the pics.  You can see more of his shots here.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go blow some more dirt out of my nose.

I’ve always thought my compatriots and I came correct with our cross race cheering and heckling. We’re loud, we’re fun, we’re mean but not too mean. Now that I’ve seen this video from Transition bikes, I realize I was living in blissful ignorance. We’ve got five months until cross starts again. That should be just enough time to pull together some top flight heckling routines. I’m particularly fond of the silent cheer and the wave. Very stylish. With master heckler Jane leading the charge and four-to-five nights of practice a week, I think we’ll really be able to set ourselves apart as the best hecklers this side of the Atlantic.

Kittens

Our fans

Don't scratch my bike.

Shell shocked

Last Sunday, the kittens were loosely wrangled for some slow bike riding and lots of drinking. Needless to say, it was perfect training for cyclocross.

We gathered together and piled the bikes at Hooverville in south downtown around 4pm. I didn’t take a head count, but there were well over 20 people on hand. Our Portland chapter even drove up just to get their slow rolling drink on with us.

Drinks were drunk. Peanuts were destroyed.

There were hundreds of teenage girls lined up outside (waiting for us?). It must have been the spandex.

After about an hour of face time, the team got together for a photo-op and hit the road. We were heading south to our lovely sponsor Loretta’s.

I made the group stop midway at Schooner Exact so I could fill my growler that I had on board. They have $6 fills on Sunday. You can’t beat that with a stick. Unless you had a stick on hand, I guess. Growler filled, we started rolling again.

Dylan managed to run a flat about a mile away from our destination. It gave us plenty of time to straddle our bikes and look PRO while he fixed it.

Loretta’s is always a magical destination. This is coming from a man that lives 5 blocks away from it too. They have burgers that are like a sweet cross between Dick’s and In-N-Out. The airstream trailer out back is always ready to cradle our filth. It is a very fine addition to South Park.

We hung out for hours while the rain pelted our poor bikes outside. It was lovely to have so many friends on hand to spend a lazy Sunday evening with. I really appreciate everyone that was able to come out.

Andrew Francis is going to be hosting a screen printing party soon with some one color kitten images that I put together.  Expect to see some info on that very shortly.

I can’t wait to hit the dirt with you guys.

Airstream = Love

Lorettas

So Soft. So Warm.

We just got the artwork back for the Soft Like Kitten warmers. For those of you who have been asking, here they are.

The party was a complete success. My alcohol tolerance needs some work though. You can tell that it’s the off season… A full post on that is coming shortly. Well, one about the party. Not my drunkenness. Unless that was part of it. I can’t remember.

The fit kits are on their way right now and should be in by early next week. We are planning on having a fit party on Saturday, January 15th around (update!) 4pm at Loretta’s in South Park. If you have any major problems with the day or time, let me know. We’d like to get as many of you as possible out for drinks and to make sure the sizing is correct before putting our full order in.

We have almost all of the sizes coming except a few of the smaller women’s shorts. The men’s bib shorts seem to run pretty close in size, so we should be able to get pretty close. Hincapie has had high demand for the samples and they were running low. The good news is, we were able to snag some skinsuit samples. With my winter weight, it should be quite a show.

Come on out, have a drink, and try on some spandex.

I saw this great video of the recent Kalmthout World Cup women’s race over at Drunk Cyclist. Katie Compton is ridiculously bad ass. Hopefully she’ll win the world championship this year and wipe that smug Dutch smile of Marianne Vos’ face. (Marianne Vos probably doesn’t have a smug Dutch smile, but what is international competition if not another chance to reassure ourselves that America is the number-one-greatest-of-all-time good guy and everyone else is evil?)

These women are the opposite of Soft Like Kitten in nearly every way. Really the only commonalities I see are the hacking death coughs and tear-filled embraces post race.

Yours truly, looking awesome and feeling the burn.

Robert, the semi-official leader of our unofficial team, asked me to write a recap of the 2010 cyclocross season. Before I jump in, I want to reassure you that I’m not about to go back and recount each and every race. As thrilling as it was for me to race my heart out for a mid-20s or -30s placing in the Cat 4 race all season, I’ll concede that it doesn’t make for the best reading material. I’ll give you a little taste of that sweet, sweet Cat 4 racing, but mostly I’m going to focus on the formation of the bonds and friendship that eventually gave way to this beautiful work of art known as Soft Like Kitten.

Cross kicks off early every year in Seattle. While most folks around the country are still thinking about their final road or mountain races, our season is getting started with the annual Labor Day Championships (not actually a championship of any sort). This year, however, a handful of crossers started really god damn early. Like mid-July early.

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