It was US President George W. Bush's 59th birthday on Wednesday, and it started out in Denmark, with a suitably celebratory intake of cake for breakfast and cake again for lunch. It ended up in Scotland, with a collision on a rain-slickened road.
Bush, apparently aiming to burn off some of his birthday calories after arriving at the Gleneagles resort, took his mountain bike out for a spin. He was pedaling along at what his spokesman Scott McClellan described as "a pretty good speed" when he crashed into a local police officer who had been standing guard along the road.
Bush, who was wearing a helmet, slid across the asphalt, suffering "mild to moderate" scrapes on his hands and arms, according to McClellan, and was bandaged up by the White House physician, Dr. Richard Tubb.
The White House provided no details of damage to Bush's ego.
The police officer unlucky enough to have been in the president's path was taken to a local hospital and later released after doctors found no fractures. McClellan said Bush spent some time with the officer, whose identity was not released by the White House, right after the collision.
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