George Bush falls off mountain bike on birthday ride

By Steve Medcroft

U.S. President George Bush wanted to celebrate his fifty-ninth birthday with a little mountain biking after Air Force One got him to Gleneagles, Scotland for the beginning of the G8 Summit last Thursday.

Bush is well known for mountain biking on protected government-owned land around Washington D.C. and on his ranch in Crawford, Texas; always under the watchful eye of a Secret Service accompaniment.

But not one of his body guards was quick enough to stop Bush from taking a tumble into a Scottish police officer forty-five minutes into his ride.

"We were flying," Bush said to reporters after the incident. "When you ride hard on a mountain bike, sometimes you fall. Otherwise, you're not riding hard enough."

Through his comments, Bush revealed that he is at least paying cursory attention to the world's biggest bike race. "The pavement was slick and the bike came out from underneath me," he said about his crash. "Just like that person in the Tour de France the other day."

Bush suffered scrapes on his hands and was able to resume work as normal later the same day.

Unfortunately, there was no report on the state of his Trek Fuel mountain bike and calls to the Whitehouse to confirm whether or not Mr. Bush has any post-presidency racing aspirations were not returned.