dreaded
July 27th 04, 07:04 AM
"Laura B." > wrote in message
...
> http://www.kfmb.com/topstory.php?storyID=27621
>
> POLITICS: BUSH PEDALS NEW PROGRAM: MOUNTAIN BIKING
>
> (07-26-2004) - President Bush charged up punishing climbs and down steep
> dirt paths on his high-performance bike Monday, winding up flat on his
> back.
>
> The president dusted himself off, waved his medics away and kept rolling,
a
> small cut on his knee and dirt on his back the only signs he had wrecked.
> He allowed that he was a bit shaken up.
>
> Bush's new hobby is a way to get his heart rate up and spend time outdoors
> without aggravating his achy knees. With an Associated Press reporter
> riding with him, Bush pedaled to remote corners of his 1,600-acre ranch.
>
> Bush has been riding the knobby-tired bikes since February, and he rides
> with abandon.
>
> He takes on dangerous sections that would give veterans pause. He keeps a
> cramp-inducing pace on long uphill sections, panting hard by the time he
> reaches 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.
>
> Over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, he burns about
> 1,200 calories and his heart rate reaches 168 beats per minute. That's
> about four times his resting rate and in the same range as Lance
> Armstrong's when the six-time Tour de France winner is pedaling hard.
>
> "At my age, you're more concerned about the cardiovascular" benefits of a
> workout, the 58-year-old president said. Mountain biking, he said, has a
> certain "mind-clearing" effect on him, as well.
>
> His bike is one of the best in the business: a Trek Fuel 98 made of space-
> age carbon fiber. The frame is adorned with high-tech components that Bush
> professes to know little about, including a motorcycle-style front and
rear
> suspension that soaks up big bumps.
>
> List price: about $3,100. He had it specially fitted by a Washington
> bicycle retailer.
>
> "My right knee has finally had it," Bush said. "Running is really a
painful
> experience for me now."
>
> "I was looking for a different way to get outside and get exercise," Bush
> said. "Swimming is outside exercise, but you don't get the feeling of the
> wind rushing past you, nor can you swim your favorite piece of property."
>
> Swimming does not offer countless ways to get injured either. Crashes are
> routine in mountain biking, and Bush has been baptized with a few wrecks.
>
> 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.
>
> Bush approaches steep downhills warily.
>
> In the moments before Monday's crash, he warns his riding party of a sharp
> drop and a hard left turn ahead.
>
> "I'm gonna show you a hill that would choke a mule," he says.
>
> He hits the brakes and is steadily advancing downhill when his front tire
> loses its grip amid the loose rocks. His foot gets stuck in a strap that
> keeps it on the pedal.
>
> In the blink of an eye, his rear wheel is in the air, and Bush is flying
> high over the handlebars, landing on his back with the bike on top of him.
>
> He lies motionless for a few moments. The reporter hoists the bike off him
> just as his medics arrive to attend to him.
>
> There are trees and a drop-off nearby, and the road is littered with
rocks,
> but Bush is uninjured.
>
> A reflector has snapped off the bike. He leaves it as a warning marker for
> next time. Bush straightens out his handlebars, throws a leg over the bike
> and keeps rolling.
>
> "We've got thrills, spills - you name it," he says.
>
> But he is tentative descending the remainder of the downhill section,
> dabbing a foot on the ground as he goes. Crashes often leave riders
> mentally rattled, and Bush acknowledges the effect.
>
> "I was trying to make sure I didn't get going so fast, because that is a
> very steep left turn," Bush says.
>
> He jokes that he was leading the "peleton," the rolling swarm of
bicyclists
> in races like the Tour de France - a race he watched regularly this month
> before Armstrong's victory Sunday.
>
> "I was cautious of my fellow bikemen, I didn't want to cut anybody off and
> drive them into the canyon," Bush says with a smile. "So I slowed down and
> because I slowed down, I lost inertia and tumbled."
>
> Bush loves showing off his ranch, and he takes his guests - and the Secret
> Service agents who ride with him, pistols bulging through their shirts -
to
> rarely visited corners of it.
>
> Monday's ride takes his entourage past the new office that contractors are
> close to finishing, a 2,500-square-foot structure with a stone facade and
> lots of windows where he says he will probably practice his convention
> speech next month. He slips at first, saying he will practice his
> inauguration speech there.
>
> A 50-acre patch of newly turned black earth will serve as the field where
> Laura Bush cultivates blue stem flowers that she plans to distribute.
>
> In one remote section, cattle stare back at him as he rides a path
littered
> with cow dung.
>
> Bush is here unwinding during the Democratic National Convention and
before
> the home stretch of his re-election campaign, and he has spent the morning
> in meetings, some of them concerning the recommendations of the
independent
> Sept. 11 commission.
>
> The ride Monday is officially a politics-free zone, and Bush doesn't want
> to talk business. He swats away questions about what his ad man, Mark
> McKinnon, is doing on the ranch. He declines to talk about the Sept. 11
> commission.
>
> When the reporter points out that Democrat John Kerry has a $8,000 road
> bicycle, Bush says, "Who?"
-snip- Mountain biking, he said, has a
certain "mind-clearing" effect on him
haha ROFL!
...
> http://www.kfmb.com/topstory.php?storyID=27621
>
> POLITICS: BUSH PEDALS NEW PROGRAM: MOUNTAIN BIKING
>
> (07-26-2004) - President Bush charged up punishing climbs and down steep
> dirt paths on his high-performance bike Monday, winding up flat on his
> back.
>
> The president dusted himself off, waved his medics away and kept rolling,
a
> small cut on his knee and dirt on his back the only signs he had wrecked.
> He allowed that he was a bit shaken up.
>
> Bush's new hobby is a way to get his heart rate up and spend time outdoors
> without aggravating his achy knees. With an Associated Press reporter
> riding with him, Bush pedaled to remote corners of his 1,600-acre ranch.
>
> Bush has been riding the knobby-tired bikes since February, and he rides
> with abandon.
>
> He takes on dangerous sections that would give veterans pause. He keeps a
> cramp-inducing pace on long uphill sections, panting hard by the time he
> reaches 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.
>
> Over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, he burns about
> 1,200 calories and his heart rate reaches 168 beats per minute. That's
> about four times his resting rate and in the same range as Lance
> Armstrong's when the six-time Tour de France winner is pedaling hard.
>
> "At my age, you're more concerned about the cardiovascular" benefits of a
> workout, the 58-year-old president said. Mountain biking, he said, has a
> certain "mind-clearing" effect on him, as well.
>
> His bike is one of the best in the business: a Trek Fuel 98 made of space-
> age carbon fiber. The frame is adorned with high-tech components that Bush
> professes to know little about, including a motorcycle-style front and
rear
> suspension that soaks up big bumps.
>
> List price: about $3,100. He had it specially fitted by a Washington
> bicycle retailer.
>
> "My right knee has finally had it," Bush said. "Running is really a
painful
> experience for me now."
>
> "I was looking for a different way to get outside and get exercise," Bush
> said. "Swimming is outside exercise, but you don't get the feeling of the
> wind rushing past you, nor can you swim your favorite piece of property."
>
> Swimming does not offer countless ways to get injured either. Crashes are
> routine in mountain biking, and Bush has been baptized with a few wrecks.
>
> 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.
>
> Bush approaches steep downhills warily.
>
> In the moments before Monday's crash, he warns his riding party of a sharp
> drop and a hard left turn ahead.
>
> "I'm gonna show you a hill that would choke a mule," he says.
>
> He hits the brakes and is steadily advancing downhill when his front tire
> loses its grip amid the loose rocks. His foot gets stuck in a strap that
> keeps it on the pedal.
>
> In the blink of an eye, his rear wheel is in the air, and Bush is flying
> high over the handlebars, landing on his back with the bike on top of him.
>
> He lies motionless for a few moments. The reporter hoists the bike off him
> just as his medics arrive to attend to him.
>
> There are trees and a drop-off nearby, and the road is littered with
rocks,
> but Bush is uninjured.
>
> A reflector has snapped off the bike. He leaves it as a warning marker for
> next time. Bush straightens out his handlebars, throws a leg over the bike
> and keeps rolling.
>
> "We've got thrills, spills - you name it," he says.
>
> But he is tentative descending the remainder of the downhill section,
> dabbing a foot on the ground as he goes. Crashes often leave riders
> mentally rattled, and Bush acknowledges the effect.
>
> "I was trying to make sure I didn't get going so fast, because that is a
> very steep left turn," Bush says.
>
> He jokes that he was leading the "peleton," the rolling swarm of
bicyclists
> in races like the Tour de France - a race he watched regularly this month
> before Armstrong's victory Sunday.
>
> "I was cautious of my fellow bikemen, I didn't want to cut anybody off and
> drive them into the canyon," Bush says with a smile. "So I slowed down and
> because I slowed down, I lost inertia and tumbled."
>
> Bush loves showing off his ranch, and he takes his guests - and the Secret
> Service agents who ride with him, pistols bulging through their shirts -
to
> rarely visited corners of it.
>
> Monday's ride takes his entourage past the new office that contractors are
> close to finishing, a 2,500-square-foot structure with a stone facade and
> lots of windows where he says he will probably practice his convention
> speech next month. He slips at first, saying he will practice his
> inauguration speech there.
>
> A 50-acre patch of newly turned black earth will serve as the field where
> Laura Bush cultivates blue stem flowers that she plans to distribute.
>
> In one remote section, cattle stare back at him as he rides a path
littered
> with cow dung.
>
> Bush is here unwinding during the Democratic National Convention and
before
> the home stretch of his re-election campaign, and he has spent the morning
> in meetings, some of them concerning the recommendations of the
independent
> Sept. 11 commission.
>
> The ride Monday is officially a politics-free zone, and Bush doesn't want
> to talk business. He swats away questions about what his ad man, Mark
> McKinnon, is doing on the ranch. He declines to talk about the Sept. 11
> commission.
>
> When the reporter points out that Democrat John Kerry has a $8,000 road
> bicycle, Bush says, "Who?"
-snip- Mountain biking, he said, has a
certain "mind-clearing" effect on him
haha ROFL!