I have been a cycling wannabe before clipless pedals were a mainstay in road cycling.  I would show up with the other twelve or so wannabes in Florida, NY every Saturday to play on our bikes and pretend to be fast. The Orange County Bicycle Club was created because we thought a club name would bring us closer to our dream of making our play relevant.

This tradition has developed over the past twenty years and it is not unusual to have 100+ cyclists show up for a Saturday ride. Like all clubs, we break up into smaller groups, so within your group you can always feel like you are still fast amongst your peers. No matter how fast we think we are, in the back of our brains we know that we are playing little league. We dream of beating our buddies up the hill, racing for the town line and just once taking the field sprint. We hold on to those dreams. It brings us out every weekend, year after year.

Dream cycling goes on all over the world. We shot this video of our Double A group playing on a beautiful fall Saturday in Orange County. I am the wannabe with the Rockstar kit and Team Rockstar Parlee. Because as all pretenders know, looking fast is better than being fast, even though it is best to be both.

Produced by the Cavallaro Group