Bush 'Shows Muscle' Against Chinese Pro Riders

By taking a short bike ride with a group of Chinese Olympic hopefuls on Sunday, Bush may have changed the course of his presidency. Well, maybe not quite that, but according to this article from China's State-run media, gifts were exchanged, and everyone appears to have been very pleased with what they received.

November 21, 2005

Original Article (English)

George Bush took a 16km, 75-minute bike ride with people that hope to make the Chinese Olympic team.

Wearing sunglasses, gloves and a helmet, he shook hands with his fellow riders, waved to the attentive crowd and off he went on his "Trek" mountain bike, brought all the way from the United States.

[Editor's Note: George Bush owns a Trek, Fuel 98, made of space-age carbon fiber with, by all accounts, an excellent rear suspension. The list price is about $3,100.]

"Take it easy on the old man," U.S. President George W. Bush said, before he started pedal-to-pedal with six Chinese bike riders, three men and three women, at Laoshan Olympic Mountain Bike Course, built for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

On a signboard overhead, Ying Ying the Tibetan antelope - one of the city's five Olympic mascots - smiles at the team, as it, too, rides a bike.

But the "old man" appears absolutely sturdy in his loose-fitting navy bike shorts, although Sunday's maximum daytime temperature was around 10 degrees Celsius [50 degrees Fahrenheit]. After the ride, his Chinese companions said he is an excellent rider, too.

"Mr. Bush rides really fast, on flat and hilly roads alike," said 27-year-old Li Fuyu, one of the six hopefuls for China's Olympic mountain biking team. His skintight red-and-yellow outfit was in sharp contrast to the President's black windbreaker.

All during the 75-minute ride over 6km of hilly road and 10km of highway, Bush was chased by the Chinese riders and two U.S. Security staff. Five American sedan automobiles, all black, followed the team.

Bush was heard saying to the Chinese riders that he would come personally to Beijing to watch the 2008 Olympic Games.

An avid sportsman, Bush took time out of his 40-hour whirlwind tour of China to take the ride. This was the second time Bush has seen Beijing from behind the handlebars of a bike.

But the Beijing that welcomes Bush today on his third visit as President is a vastly different city, with its narrow streets, that he rode his bike through in 1975, shortly after he received his Masters Degree in Business Administration from Harvard.

"I can remember how odd people thought I looked," he told Asian journalists before his China tour began. "There wasn't much exposure to the West, and all of a sudden, an American starts riding a bike amongst them and, frankly, it surprised some people."

On behalf of all Chinese athletes, Asian cycling champ Ma Yanping presented to Bush a tan, zip-up casual riding suit, with a "Beijing 2008" logo. "Mr. President is a sports fan and we think sportswear suits him more than any other gift. We hope he'll wear it someday," Ma told Xinhua in an interview.

In return, Bush gave each Chinese cyclist a U.S. presidential emblem made of metal, along with a pair of red-and-blue cotton socks with the emblem embroidered into them.

"I'm really excited," said Ma. "It's a unique gift for those who join in the President's physical exercise."

"Mr. President also wished us good luck at the Beijing Olympics," she said.

Source: Xinhua