GEORGE BUSH is hoping to show off his newfound mountain bike skills by taking Lance Armstrong, the seven-times Tour de France champion, for a ride across the rough terrain of his 1,600-acre Texas ranch on Saturday.

The President, 59, prides himself on having a fitness level in the top 1 per cent for men of his age. He weighs 13st 10lb, can bench-press 185lb and, until a knee injury forced him to give up jogging last year, was able to run three miles in under 20 minutes.

Since then he has taken up mountain biking, which, he says, is a good alternative to running for men of his age. There has been criticism about the time devoted to his fitness regime but Mr Bush will have none of it, saying: “The people want the President to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy.”

Reporters invited on a gruelling two hour “Tour de Crawford” this week were told that “part of my being is to be outside exercising”.

Indeed, the President’s escapades on his $3,000 Trek Fuel bike have been carefully chronicled. He has gone over his handlebars at the ranch, and while in Scotland last month for the G8 summit injured himself and a British policeman after crashing on wet pavements.

But even this super-fit President may struggle to keep up with the 33-year-old Tour de France champ. While the President’s resting heart rate is a very healthy 47 beats per minute, Armstrong’s is just 32. Armstrong, a fellow Texan whose achievements since recovering from cancer rank him as one of the greatest American athletes, said that the prospect of riding with the President was a dream scenario.

“People wonder why he stays at the ranch for so long — it might be the mountain bike trails,” he said.

For his part, Mr Bush has described Armstrong as an “incredible inspiration” and announced that he intends to reappoint his fellow Texan to a government panel monitoring cancer research.

However, the mutual admiration might end if they begin discussing politics. Armstrong, interviewed for The Times last year, said he was “middle to Left, against mixing up State and Church, not keen on guns, pro-women’s right to choose”.

Asked about the Iraq war, he said: “I don’t like what the war has done to our country, to our economy. My kids will be paying for this war for some time to come.

“George Bush is a friend of mine and, just as I say it to you, I’d say to him, ‘Mr President, I’m not sure this war was such a good idea’.”

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