News
Bush beats about on a 'Dale
Carlton Reid Nov 24 2006, 9:30am
President Bush has switched bicycle brands. Formerly a devotee of Trek - thanks to gifts from Trek's John Burke - the cyclist-in-chief has now been spotted riding a big bucks Cannondale.
The Associated Press reports that the mountain biking leader of the free world went cycling on Thursday while spending the Thanksgiving holiday at Camp David.
But his top-end Trek MTBs were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the president was riding a $5000 'Dale, a gift from Matt Mannelly, president of Cannondale.
"He's an avid rider, a fanatic," said Mannelly.
Cannondale gifted the '07 bike last month prior to the model shipping to shops.
Mannelly told AP: "We made it very clear we wouldn't do anything to market this. To give it to someone like the president, who's actually going to use it a lot, means a lot to us."
The AP article reveals that the president keeps one of his Trek bikes at a bike store close to Camp David, Revolution Cycles of Beltsville.
The stores' president, Mike Hamannwright, fitted Bush with his Trek bikes and has ridden with him. Co-owner Santiago 'Pinkey' Gonzalez was said to be the president's official bike mechanic.
The president's spare bike is painted and stickered-up to match Air Force One. Revolution Cycles manager Darrin Misiera said:
"We could probably get $25,000 for it on eBay. But of course we can't sell it. It has the seal of the President of the United States."
But Dubya isn't the only American politician keen on matters bicycling.
Following the recent US mid-term elections pro-cycling Representatives look set to play key roles on Congressional transport committees.
Jim Oberstar, co- author of the 1991 law that led to federal funding for bicycle projects, is in line to become chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He is expected to assume that committee’s chairmanship when the 110th Congress convenes in January 2007.
Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker in the next Congress, is also a cyclist. She’s a member of the Bi-partisan Congressional Bike Caucus (BCBC).
Former bike mechanic Peter DeFazio is likely to chair the surface transportation subcommittee. And Earl Blumenauer, founder of BCBC, the US equivalent of the All-party parliamentary cycling group, could grab a senior position on the transportation committee or the Ways and Means tax-writing committee.
Last year Oberstar helped secure $600m for a Safe Routes to School programme.
Blumenauer is sponsoring a bill that would give tax break rights to cycle commuters and said: "I think it's going to be a very good session for cycling.”
Industry organisations such as Bikes Belong – the US equivalent of Bike Hub – will now feel they are pushing on an open door to get new national strategy to encourage cycling.
DeFazio said: "Bikes are going to be an integral part of our transportation network.”
