Riding with POTUS

From the Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star



Bike-shop owner helps Bush shift gears
Says interaction with the president was friendly and down-to-earth

BY ROB HEDELT
THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Mar 21, 2005

STAFFORD - Several miles into his first 18-mile bike ride with
President Bush at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Aquia Harbour resident
Mike Hamannwright almost settled into perfect-pedaling bliss.


After all, it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in mid-February.

The Stafford County cyclist and bike-store owner was grooving on the
hard-charging pace.

The lean biking businessman got to exchange small talk with the guy
cranking away on the adjacent mountain bike, George W. Bush. The very
same President Bush whom Hamannwright visited at the White House
several times to troubleshoot the bike's fit and talk injury issues as
the 58-year-old chief executive was making an exercise switch from
running to cycling.

"Each time I'd settle down, and start to feel like it was just another
enjoyable ride with a good bunch of cyclists, I'd look back and see the
big SUVs right behind us," Hamannwright said, smiling. "Up hills, down
trails, they were right there."

It was a transcendent moment for a Northern California native, who 10
years into a promising management career at United Airlines dropped all
that to take a cycling trip that included treks from the British Isles
to North Africa.

That led to a stint managing bike shops in the D.C. area, and finally
to becoming part owner and president of Revolution Cycles, with several
stores in the Washington area as well as Stafford.

He earned a reputation as a veteran at fitting bikes to cyclists, which
led to his meeting Bush.

"I was in the midst of preparing to take several customers on a bike
tour to see the Tour de France last summer when someone called from the
White House to see if I could meet with the president at 4 p.m.," he
said.

"I didn't even check my appointments. It was the president."

Arriving promptly that afternoon, he was briefed by a White House
doctor. The president, after regular rides on a mountain bike, was
feeling lower-back pain.

To a veteran bike fitter, the words "lower-back pain" were clues to the
problem.

"The second I saw him on the bike, I knew it was too small for him," he
said. "He was all scrunched up on it."

To ease the back stress, Hamannwright put the president on a larger
bike, installed handlebar extensions that allow a more upright ride and
gave him an indoor trainer to build up stamina.

Hamannwright said his rides and visits with Bush were exciting and his
interaction with the president friendly and down-to-earth. It was, he
said, an example of simply being in the right place at the right time -
with a touch of the surreal thrown in for good measure.

"On that first visit, I asked an aide if it was OK to physically touch
the president, which I need to do fitting him to the bike," he said. "I
wanted to make sure a Secret Service agent wouldn't jump out and tackle
me."

A second White House visit came in January. The president's knee pain
was back.

Bush wanted to make workouts tough by riding in low, hard-to-pedal-in
gears.

But Hamannwright told the president he could get equally strenuous
exercise by pedaling faster in higher gears.

He also recommended switching to clipless pedals and special biking
shoes, which improve pedaling mechanics.

The result: knee pain gone.

In what seemed like an offhand comment at the end of that White House
visit, Bush told the Stafford resident he should join him sometime for
a ride at Quantico.

A formal invitation arrived not long afterward, for a ride there Feb.
13. For 18 miles in 75 minutes, Hamannwright found himself riding
alongside the president, exchanging pleasantries at the front of a pack
that included Secret Service agents, a White House photographer and
others.

"Make no mistake - he's serious about his workouts, and hammers from
the second he starts," the Stafford rider said. "Before we started, he
told me that there was one simple rule: 'Don't pass the president.' I
was really more worried about keeping up."

Keep up he did, both on that afternoon and on another a few weeks later
when he was asked along for another ride. In that one, Bush set the
pace for a ride spanning 22 miles in 82 minutes.

To Hamannwright, the neatest thing about his cycling experience with
Bush is the healthy message it can send.

"I'm 49, and here's a president who's 58, and we're out riding bikes to
stay in shape," he said. "No matter whether you're 7 or 70, you can
ride to stay fit."

I never questioned his *physical* capacity....

Neil Brooks wrote:
I never questioned his *physical* capacity....

Certainly. He's *very* full of ****.

--Blair
"Like riding behind a sick horse."

"Ed Sullivan" wrote in message
ps.com...


A second White House visit came in January. The president's
knee pain
was back.

Bush wanted to make workouts tough by riding in low,
hard-to-pedal-in
gears.

An error many of us have made in our cycling lives, and can
sympathize with.

Thanks for posting this.
Bike riding can improve us all, even [but I'm about to get
political].

In article 1111511167.6d7ccef6560977534342b9405be4e916@teran ews,
"Mike Kruger" writes:

Bike riding can improve us all, even [but I'm about to get
political].

Just for laffs I tried Googling on:
"lyndon larouche" bicycle

but I didn't find much of anything that looked
interesting enough to make wading through
the hits worthwhile.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

=v= Wow, and the Shrub didn't fall down and blame "a mud puddle"
like he did that one time (in Texas, after weeks of no rain)?
_Jym_

"Jym Dyer" wrote in message
...
=v= Wow, and the Shrub didn't fall down and blame "a mud puddle"
like he did that one time (in Texas, after weeks of no rain)?
_Jym_

Jym: You may strongly disagree with the Prez (and I won't blame you), but I
spoke with Mike (the guy who rode with Bush and is quoted in the article)
last week, and it's quite clear Bush is the real thing on a bike. I wouldn't
take him to task much on the "mud puddle" remark; it may have been one of
those off-hand things any of us might have said, an attempt at humor to
cover something stupid that we did.

In the end, the good news/bad news may be one and the same to many. We have
an exceptionally-fit president who isn't going to drop over dead from eating
too many Twinkies and watching TV instead of getting outside.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:


In the end, the good news/bad news may be one and the same to many. We have
an exceptionally-fit president who isn't going to drop over dead from eating
too many Twinkies and watching TV instead of getting outside.



.... or one who smokes big fat cigars.

catzz66 wrote:
Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:


In the end, the good news/bad news may be one and the same to many.
We have an exceptionally-fit president who isn't going to drop over
dead from eating too many Twinkies and watching TV instead of
getting outside.



... or one who smokes big fat cigars.

Seasoned by a big fat...

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

Jym: You may strongly disagree with the Prez (and I won't blame you), but I
spoke with Mike (the guy who rode with Bush and is quoted in the article)
last week, and it's quite clear Bush is the real thing on a bike.

He also's evidently got great will power. THere was an article in
newsweek about him a few months ago. He evidently gave up drinking (or
maybe it was smoking, or maybe both..) cold turkey; had the shakes so
bad he could hardly swing his golf club the next day. His golf buddy
recommended they quit but he'd have none of it.

If only he wasn't such a moron....

Rich