5 Celebrities Who Love Cycling

Cycling is not just for the average joe. Bikes have frequently shown up in the garages of Hollywood stars, too.

While celebrities have garnered attention for competing in triathlons and running races around Southern California, not as much attention is given to those who develop a passion for cycling. But they are out there.

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Whether they're recreational bike riders or hard-core racers, these five celebrities frequently clip in and can be spotted riding around Los Angeles, New York or whatever city they happen to be in.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Perhaps best known for playing Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell, Gosselaar has grown up from his days at Bayside High with roles on NYPD Blue, Franklin & Bash and Raising the Bar, among many others.

Gosselaar, though, doubles as a competitive cyclist—and a good one. Velo News reports that Gosselaar is a successful bike racer, moving up from Cat. 5 to Cat. 2 in just two seasons. He was recently in France to watch Paris-Roubaix, where he Tweeted that he was able to ride part of the course a few days before the race.

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Robin Williams

The longtime actor (Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting) and comedian is one of the more famous celebrity cyclists. He may be the most passionate about his bikes, too. When PezCycling asked him how many bikes he owns, he replied, "too many to count."

Williams is known to be friends with Lance Armstrong and used to travel to watch Armstrong in the Tour de France. In fact, Armstrong and Williams were riding together just days before Williams was hospitalized and forced to undergo heart surgery in 2009.

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Patrick Dempsey

He plays Dr. Shepherd (a.k.a. McDreamy) on the hit series Grey's Anatomy, and has had starring roles in several films. Dempsey, though, has quite the busy life away from acting. He's also a competitive race-car driver, and a passionate cyclist.

He's so into cycling that he started the Dempsey Challenge as a fundraiser for The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at the Central Maine Medical Center in his native state. The Dempsey Challenge features a bike ride with distances of 10, 25, 50, 70 and 100 miles, as well as 5K and 10K running races. Dempsey participated in the 50-mile ride during the 2011 event. Pro cyclist Levi Leipheimer attends the event every year.

Dempsey said in a 2008 interview with Bicycling Magazine that he rides more than 100 miles a week.

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Jake Gyllenhaal

The movie actor (Brokeback Mountain, Source Code, Donnie Darko) admits he has an addiction to fitness, which includes cycling.

Gyllenhaal is frequently photographed on his road bike in both New York and California, and even took a Men's Journal reporter on a ride through the hills of Los Angeles for a feature story.

"I'm not really a gearhead," Gyllenhaal told Men's Journal. "With biking, the spirit of it is—whatever you can find."

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David Byrne

The former lead singer of Talking Heads (the 1983 hit Burning Down the House was their biggest) is in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, but he's equally involved in cycling.

Byrne wrote the 2009 book Bicycle Diaries and has used the bike as his primary transportation around New York City for years. He even designed unique, art-like bike racks that were installed around New York (for example, a bike rack on Wall Street was shaped like a dollar sign).

"There's a certain amount of freedom involved in cycling," Byrne told The Guardian in 2009. "You're self-propelled and decide exactly where to go."

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