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Bush joins athletes for bike ride
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-20 20:28
BEIJING (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took a break from talks with
Chinese leaders on Sunday, trading his business suit for a wind-breaker and
shorts to take a bike ride with aspiring Olympic athletes in Beijing.
US President George W. Bush rides his mountain
bike with Chinese Olympic hopefuls on the Laoshan Olympic mountain bike
course in Beijing, November 20, 2005.
[Reuters] | Bush, who had earlier thanked
President Hu Jintao for the good weather laid on for his visit, took advantage
of the warm, sunny conditions to indulge in his favourite sport of mountain
biking at an athletic training centre in Beijing.
Joining him were six Chinese athletes, three men and three women sporting
orange and yellow lycra suits.
The group posed for pictures with Bush before the ride and the athletes
presented him with a beige sweater emblazoned "Beijing 2008", the Olympic Games
they hope to qualify for.
"How do you say, take it easy on the old man?" Bush joked as he got on his
bike.
"C'mon, let's go," said Bush, who had brought his mountain bike from
Washington aboard Air Force One.
As he sped with the pack down a dusty path, a reporter asked him if it
reminded him of his rides at his Crawford, Texas ranch.
"Better than Crawford," Bush replied.
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