I should act my age, says bike crash Bush
Accident-prone George Bush admitted today he should start “acting my age” after crashing his mountain bike into a policeman.
The US president came to grief as he cycled around the grounds of the Gleneagles Hotel, the G8 summit venue, on his 59th birthday yesterday.
Mr Bush was left with cuts to his arm and hand while the luckless officer was taken to hospital for checks before returning to duty.
“It goes to show I should act my age,” he told reporters this morning.
The president is a keen cyclist who is known to listen to his iPod while in the saddle.
He compared his mishap to American Tour de France competitor David Zabriskie who dramatically crashed in the final moments of Tuesday’s stage but admitted “he’s a better bike rider than me”.
Mr Bush blamed a rigorous work-out and the damp conditions in Scotland as he appeared at an early morning press call with Tony Blair.
“When you ride hard on a mountain bike, sometimes you fall, otherwise you are not riding hard,” he said.
“It was the end of a good, hard ride and the pavement was slick. The bike came off underneath me.”
The president was bandaged by a White House doctor but showed no signs of his injury as he posed for the traditional “family photo” ahead of a banquet last night hosted by the Queen.
He laughed off the incident this morning, joking: “It is a beautiful day for a bike ride. So was yesterday, I thought.”
Mr Bush insisted he felt fine and “ready to go” this morning, saying his concern was for the officer, who is from the Strathclyde force.
“I talked to him. He is doing fine. (I’m) less worried about myself,” he said.
Yesterday’s accident was just one in a long list of Bush mishaps.
In May last year he fell off his mountain bike, grazing his chin, upper lip, nose, both knees, and his right hand, while riding on his ranch in Texas.
In 2002, Mr Bush fainted and fell off his sofa in the White House when he choked on a pretzel while watching American football. He passed out for a few seconds, then woke up and called for White House medical staff.
In June 2003, he fell off his high-tech Segway scooter as he stepped on to it at his family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. But he managed to leap to safety, landing on his feet.
