It's like learning to ride a Bike (or like Bush falling from it)

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP)

Running hurt his knees. Swimming cramped his style. So President 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.

Bush offered a glimpse of his new pastime to an Associated Press reporter 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 $3,100 bicycle and kept riding.

Bush, who was wearing a helmet and a mouth guard, 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.

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.

I have been riding a mountain bike all of my life and have only once fallen (when a car hit my back tire). I tried to rationalize this inablility of our president, maybe he's getting older and his coordination doesn't work they way it should. Then I realized, I have a friend whose mom mountain bike forty miles a day to work and then delivers babys for twenty seven hours and rides home. She doesn't fall from exhaustion. She lives in Seattle where the mountians form steep climbs. Texas is flat. Who the heck is running our country? But, here is the best part, this didn't happen once but TWICE in the past three months.

Bush falls on bike ride

President suffers minor scrapes during jaunt on his ranch
From Dana Bash
CNN Washington Bureau
Saturday, May 22, 2004 Posted: 10:51 PM EDT (0251 GMT)

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush fell off his bicycle Saturday while riding on his ranch, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Bush, who was accompanied on his bike ride by his doctor, Richard Tubb, a military agent and a member of the Secret Service, fell about 16 miles into a 17-mile ride.

Bush suffered minor abrasions to his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees, but was able to ride back home, Duffy said.

Tubb treated the president at the scene. Bush was wearing a helmet and a mouth guard when he fell, Duffy said.

Reporters were told not to be surprised if the president is bandaged next time he appears in public.

He's definately not a cripple, can it be that he's just that dumb? How can he make important public speeches and be taken seriously with bicycle wounds?