Ed Nasjleti is a bike legend and a fascinating guy to listen to, especially when he’s fabricating a formula on how to make a drink he’s just invented. Watch the sophisticated three-finger measure and pay attention to the 100% ice tea base, its critical. Get ready to take notes and then enjoy a wet and delicious treat as you will never get better instruction on how to make a one of a kind Ed Nasjleti Palmerino? Palmerono? Palmeryno?

Here I am with Neutral Race Support stalwart Chad Contreras and the legendary Ed Nasjleti at the Democratic National Convention (we will also be attending the Republican Convention next week) as they repair a few of the 1,000 bikes donated by Trek, Specialized, Fuji, Raleigh, Giant, and Schwinn as part of the Freewheelin bike share program. The program will loan bikes out to anyone who registers each day of each event for free to create bike awareness, promote green thinking, wellness, and reduce the Conventions’ carbon footprint. The goal was 5,000 bike trips and 25,000 miles by bike, they were …

SRAM, in cooperation with Bikes Belong and Humana Health Care, has provided one SRAM NRS car and two Tech’s at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to assist in maintaining the 1,000 bikes donated by Trek, Specialized, Fuji, Raleigh, Giant, and Schwinn as part of the Freewheelin bike share program. The program will loan bikes out to anyone who registers each day of each event for free.

Kelly Benefits isn’t the team that wins every weekend (although they do win their share of races) but we’ve never been around a pro team with a more relaxed, fun atmosphere. Here’s a photo timeline they spent their Saturday before the US crit championship last weekend. The full set of photos is on Flickr. Videos on the way.

10:09 AM

10:45 AM

11:10 AM

11:29 AM

12:14 PM

SRAM triathlete Jan Frodeno of Germany has won the gold medal in Beijing! It was a close finish, with Jan barely outkicking Canada’s Simon Whitfield. Yahoo Sports has some great photo coverage, and here’s an interview with Jan that we taped after his second place at the Hamburg World Cup in July, where he talks about his pre-Olympic form. Congratulations!!

Paul Damato gets to travel to a lot of the big races in the US, so he’s really familiar with a lot of our grassroots and elite amateur teams. Here are some of his photos from yesterday in Downers Grove. The full Flickr gallery is here.

Big crowds during the pro men’s race

Brooke on the podium. SRAM rider Kat Carroll from the Aaron’s team was 5th (in the red jersey)

SRAM riders from TIBCO, HIncapie-Barkley, and Team Kenda in a pre-race standoff with some non-SRAM riders

Our big pro team sponsorships get a lot of attention, but SRAM also supports dozens of amateur teams around the country, from the elite level to local grassroots clubs. Many of these teams are based in the Chicago area, our home town, so we decided to set up a space at the US National Criterium Championships for them to have a seat and a cold drink, grab some swag and spare parts, get service from SRAM Neutral Race Support, and check out the new 2009 Rival group. We had a …

The US National Criterium Championships are this weekend in Downer’s Grove, just outside of Chicago. A number of SRAM teams are in town for the race, including Kelly Benefits-Medifast and Team TIBCO. We followed both squads for throughout the day leading up to the Saturday evening warmup races before Sunday’s championship events. Here’s what both teams were doing at 11:15 this morning.

One of our first posts on The Road Diaries was about Alberto Contador’s custom pink Trek Madone 6.9 from the Giro d’Italia, as pictured here. But did John Bruyneel let him race on it? We got to take another look this week at Trek World in Madison, Wisconsin, and this video gives you the scoop.