Robin Williams: cyclist, cycling superfan, bike collector, runner and triathlete
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http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/7xzghq/robin-williams
A Fall 2013 appearance on The Daily Show, where he spends about half the interview talking about bikes and cycling.
On riding his bike around NYC: “Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s the greatest way to get around. All of a sudden, people think, ‘No, that couldn’t be Mork, no.’ “
(Jon Stewart has some old-fashioned ideas about cycling and Citi Bike though. He focuses on the fact that Citi Bike users don’t wear helmets, but there have been very few bike accidents among the bikeshare users.)
http://blogs.bicycling.com/blogs/thehub/remembering-cyclist-robin-williams
http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/robin-williams-im-lucky-have-bikes-my-life
(From 2003)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6421[/ATTACH](Joe Raedle/Getty Images), posted at Bicycling.com
In one interview, he said that when he was at home in the SF area, he would try to bike every morning. He had been on bike rides with Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. (He later said that he felt burned by Armstrong after the USADA report was released.)
He was a fanatical observer of the Tour de France, watching part of the race in person many times. And a serious bike collector:
In one interview, Pez Cycling News asked him how many bikes he owned, to which he responded, “too many to count.”
In the 2003 article, he is said to have owned perhaps the world’s most valuable collection of exotic bikes, a total of more than 50 high-end bikes. (The article points out that he had been earning an average of $55 million a year over the previous decade, so his bike purchases were easily affordable for him.)
He was described as more of a sprinter than a climber. He was more of a heavy-set person, not a thin and light climber.
He was a supporter of the Challenged Athletes Foundation and an amateur triathlete. In high school, he was a solid runner, posting a time of 1:58.8 in the 800 meters (approx. a half mile distance).
Of course he was also a world-famous comedian, actor and speaker. And an alcoholic, sometime drug user and a sufferer of depression. Some have posted that his open-heart surgery could have set off the recent depression that may have led to his death.
I didn’t know about his enthusiasm for cycling until this week. I only knew about his many movies and TV shows, from Mrs. Doubtfire and Aladdin, to Mork and Mindy, and darker fare like One Hour Photo. (Williams played a very creepy character, a photo technician in a one-hour photo shop who becomes obsessed with a family who are frequent customers at the store. The movie made a decent amount. It was also very highly praised among critics.) There are a lot of tragedies going on around the world, but I won’t complain about the coverage that Williams’ death is receiving. Not many people can say that they weren’t entertained by his performances over the years. He brought a lot to the table. A sad way to go.
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