Bush swaps election trail for bike trails

RUNNING hurt his knees. Swimming cramped his style. So US President George W Bush took up mountain biking, a sport that gets him outdoors, pumps up his heart rate and, every so often, sends him crashing to the ground.

He offered a glimpse of his new pastime on Monday, roaming the dirt roads and far-flung pastures of his 1,600-acre ranch. About halfway through, he sailed over the handlebars during a dangerous descent, but dusted himself off, picked up his bike and kept riding.

Mr Bush escaped injury other than a small cut on his knee. But he conceded he was a little shaken up, riding tentatively as he descended the rest of the downhill stretch.

Crashing is a routine part of mountain biking, a sport in which riders roll over loose dirt, rocks and other obstacles. Nevertheless, the president said, it’s easier on his body than jogging, which was grinding his knees.

“This is like running except I don’t feel bad afterward,” he said after burning about 1,200 calories over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes.

“You can cover a lot more, and you can go very fast on a bike,” he said. Most importantly, he gets his heart rate up. “At my age, you’re more concerned about the cardiovascular” benefits of a workout, the 58-year-old president said.

Mr Bush has only been riding mountain bikes since February, yet he takes on dangerous sections that would give veterans pause. He keeps a cramp-inducing pace on long uphill sections, pouring it on to reach each peak, backing off a little to recover and then attacking the next hill.

He pants hard, emitting low “hrrr, hrrr, hrrr” grunts with each stroke of the pedals, his shoulders bobbing up and down.

Mr Bush’s $3,100 bike is one of the best in the business: a Trek Fuel 98 made of high-tech carbon fibre which he had specially fitted by a Washington bicycle retailer.

“I was looking for a different way to get outside and get exercise,” he said. “Swimming is outside exercise, but you don’t get the feeling of the wind rushing by you, nor can you swim your favourite piece of property.”

But mountain biking is inherently dangerous, as the president knows firsthand.

On May 22, he lost traction on a dirt road, scraping his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees. The next day, a Secret Service agent riding behind him slammed onto the ground at high speed on a paved section, breaking his collarbone and three ribs.

Mr Bush is unwinding on his ranch during the Democratic National Convention and before the home stretch of his re-election campaign.

But out on the trail, it’s officially a politics-free zone. When the reporter pointed out that Democratic challenger John Kerry has an $8,000 road bicycle, Mr Bush replied: “Who?”