Presidential Perk: Ride with Lance

Lance Armstrong will travel to Crawford, TX to mountain bike with President Bush next weekend. "It's a dream scenario for me," Armstrong said. "Now that President Bush doesn't run anymore, he rides his mountain bike fanatically. People wonder why he's stays at the ranch so long, it might be the mountain bike trails."

Armstrong said although the president certainly couldn't whip him, he's impressed with how seriously Bush takes the his new sport.

"I know people who have ridden with him," Armstrong said. "I can tell you he's one very competitive guy. Very competitive, there's no talking. A few minutes of warm up time, a little chitchat, then you go."

That matches up with what this journalist says about Bush's riding.

The truth about the Biker-in-Chief is that the man can really ride. Over the course of a two-hour Tour de Crawford, Bush humbled every rider in Peloton One with a strong and steady pace over scorching hot paved roads, muddy creek crossings, energy-sapping tall grass and steep climbs on loose and crumbling rock.

"This is not a race," he insisted at the start of the ride. "This is a chance for me to show you a little slice of heaven, as far as I'm concerned. You know, some guys go on their ranch and ride horses — I like to ride my ranch on a mountain bike."

Keeping up with Bush — whose fitness level was recently rated in his annual physical exam as being in the top 1% of men 55 to 59 — was as difficult as any race I've entered.