By LARRY CELONA, KELLY MAGEE and ERIC LENKOWITZ
Last updated: 8:54 pm
June 27, 2008
Posted: 3:37 am
June 6, 2008
The "French Spider-Man" notched another lofty achievement in his belt yesterday by scaling the 52-story New York Times building - with a sequel coming just hours later, when a rival climber from Brooklyn duplicated the feat.
The twin bill - bizarre even for Times Square - dazzled spectators but left each climber sulking because the other had stolen his thunder.
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Act One began at 11:39 a.m., with the Broadway debut of Alain Robert, 45, who has climbed skyscrapers around the world. He reached the rooftop, 784 feet up, in about an hour.
Robert's fist-pumping - and seemingly effortless ascent - left fellow daredevil Renaldo Clarke, 33, overcome with envy as he watched the drama on TV at his Sunset Park home.
Clarke, who had long planned to pull a similar stunt but had yet to pick a building, threw on his climbing shoes and went to the Eighth Avenue tower -- now being guarded by NYPD officers -- even though he hadn't trained adequately and was in no shape for the arduous ascent, said a law-enforcement source.
That became evident as he stopped to catch his breath several times on the way up
Emergency Service cops pleaded with him to attach a lifeline to his body. He refused, likely out of fear he would be yanked to safety.
Still, he ended up finishing his vertical journey nearly as fast as Robert - who felt upstaged by the amateur.
"He's absolutely nothing to do with us," Robert's manager, Julie Cohen, griped. "This is really upsetting."
The death-defying duo each scaled the building - which has ladder-like slats in its facade - with nothing more than bare hands and climbing shoes.
Robert, a married father of three who was trying to raise awareness about global warming, unfurled a banner as cars and trucks, gridlocked for 10 blocks, belched out fumes.
Clarke, who is single, made his climb to raise awareness about malaria in Africa. He wore a T-shirt that read, "Malaria No More."
"Everybody has a cause in life," his father, also named Renaldo, told The Post from his Atlanta home.
The elder Clarke, a former Far Rockaway, Queens, resident and retired Con Ed worker - who made several failed bids for New York's City Council - said, "I am going to have to sit down and have a stern talk with him. He is never going to do anything like that again."
Clarke watched TV coverage of his son's climb - unaware it was him.
"I didn't even know it was in New York City. I thought it was ludicrous, just another amazing act," Clarke said, noting that his son is an "avid climber" who once scaled either the Manhattan or Brooklyn bridge.
"He has no fear."
As for the world-famous Robert, "He was like a lizard going up," said spectator Monica Williams.
