I was an extra in a Nike commercial with Lance: Bikefanclub.com

Recently a riding buddy of mine called me up and told me of a casting call for a Nike commercial which required paceline proficient roadies. Rumor was that Lance was going to be in it, and that the shoot would be in nearby Sonoma.

Auditions took place one mid week afternoon in San Francisco. Dressed up in riding garb and taking our bikes, my friend and I made our way down to the city and found the address, some dinngy, hole in the wall walkup. We entered, and carried our bikes up the stairway into the agency's waiting room.

When we encountered the other people sitting in the waiting room, our hopes for getting a part were buoyed. Virtually everybody there were messenger types; with tattoos running up one arm and down the other; spiked and colored hair; piercings; etc. Pacelining with helmetless riders on brakeless single speeds? Hah! we thought.

I'll fast forward a bit and say that we did get chosen, but the shoot location changed to within the city itself, near Chinatown. And, the paceline changed to a pack ride, chasing after a Lance double.

No, the real Lance didn't show. Instead, they dressed up some guy who in fact races for the Ofoto team, in full Postal gear and put him on a Trek.

Schedule was: be there at 430 on a Sunday morning for wardrobe (consisting of covering logos on clothing with colored tape) and begin shooting at 600h.

I was pleasantly surprised to see most all of the messengers who auditioned with us there - I figured not enough real roadies came to the casting call; hence the change in location and script. See what you all missed?

Shooting went on until 100PM when we broke for a feast of a lunch. There must have been around 15 or 20 takes during that time, with a lot of standing around in between. During the standaround time, I got acquainted with the messenger culture and became fascinated. A pecking order became apparent, at the top I found some of the trickest riders I've seen in some time.... no hand track stands; no hands figure eights forward and backward, etc. A carefree bravado exists as evidenced by the clouds of smoke which could be seen rising here and there; but when the camera call came up, cigarettes and such were flicked aside, and everything turned to business.

It was a fun experience, and a paid one too. When the commercial comes out (this summer I guess), and if you see a rider wearing a plain green jersey with full black arms, black tights, dark blue Met helmet, riding probably the only yellow bike there near the rear wheel of "lance" off to the side, then you'll know that I made it through editing.