Chris Horner spent some time training in the suburbs of Chicago last week before racing in the Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove Village. Unfortunately Chris was involved in a stage two pile-up and fractured his collarbone. Prior to the unfortunateness he gave me some updates on his plans and the recent Team Astana roster re-signings. His race plans will certainly change with the collarbone injury but he is excited about the team and its future, he also talks about (his former teammate) Cadel Evan’s …

Astana’s Chris Horner has been spending time in the flatlands of the midwest (northwest of Chicago) in between the Chicago Criterium and the Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove Village events (unfortunately Chris fractured his collar bone in stage two of this race), his long-term training focused on the the upcoming Vuelta. I caught up with him in my kitchen pre-ride to see what he was up to. His plan was to take his Trek Equinox TT bike out for a spin prior to the Elk Grove prologue, which happens …

We have been recording video and taking pics for a few months here at SRAM in anticipation of The Road Diaries going live, which it obviously has. I was at the 2008 Tour of Georgia and I took this quick video of Chris Horner (Team Astana) warming up, I think its pretty cool. Horner does a great job of paying no attention to me. I know for a fact that when these guys are warming up you do not want to interfere in any way, they are completely focused …

Just a quick wrap-up form the Chicago Criterium. I missed the podium ceremony by moments but did get Champagne on me, and it was a great race with a super strong field. Adam Bergman (Texas Roadhouse) took out the win, Dominique Rollin (Toyota United) was 2nd, David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) 3rd, and Chris Horner (Astana) was 4th.

Amber Rais and her TIBCO teammates domninated the first annual Chicago Criterium Women’s Pro race. The late race solo attack by Amber was incredible as she put over a minute into one of the strongest fields I have yet to see this year. Teammates Brooke Miller, Rushlee Buchanan, Helen Kelly, and Rachel Heal all added attacks that demonstrated to the field that TIBCO was serious about this event and came to win. Congrats to TIBCO and Amber and thanks so much for coming out to race this event. Brooke Miller finished third overall.

Here is a quick interview with one of the best sprinters in the U.S., Alex Candelario. Cando is laid back and just easy going, one of my favorite guys to chat with on the circuit. I was able to catch him a few hours before the start of the first Annual Chicago Criterium. Not exactly sure where Cando ended up, pretty certain he was a top ten finisher, but his team his a ton of work in this race. I’m certain we will see these guys at Downer’s and Elk Grove getting a big result just like they did last …

I was fortunate enough to be asked to announce on the backside of the course at the Chicago Criterium this past Sunday, July 27. My partner Todd was awesome to work with and SRAM was one of the big sponsors. SRAM was founded in Chicago 21 years ago, its a great cycling city, and we were proud to be a part of this race’s first go-round and look forward to many more.

The race was spectauclar and in speaking to Chris Horner (Astana) afterwards, he was blown, adding that it …