Bike Goliath Leaves Others in Wake

BELLA COUNIHAN February 8, 2010 - 12:56PM
Comments 6

I was trying to figure out why I might like Tony Abbott. Was it his frankness? Was it his no-bullshit personality? Was he simply a politician that gave a genuine answer when asked a genuine question? Well, maybe. These things contribute. But more than anything I think it was the bike.
The bike itself is not anything particularly special. Bought in the trading post, this is his main road bike for use in Canberra (he has another allegedly swankier bike in Sydney). Before any of us have even opened an eye lid, the opposition leader has been up Red Hill a Herculean four times. Its retro, heavy steel frame would not make the ride that easy. In the first week back to parliament, looking up one evening on the ABC news, dramatic music accompanied Tony cycling at some ungodly time in the morning - it looked good . But this image of dedicated exercise could be important and could be a real advantage.
It's hard to not make a comparison between Abbott's morning cycle and former PM John Howard's indefatigable jump-suited AM walks, which became a part of his political routine. Howard used it to reinforce the portrayal of Kim Beazely as physically unfit and therefore undisciplined. Howard made sure he was seen every morning on his power walk. Where he went, so went media, a crew of security guards, the occasional protesters and the odd Chaser comedian. Except for the recent picture opportunity, Abbott wakes up too early for many people to be around but he is making his unrelenting fitness a part of his image and for good reason. Devotion to exercise shows a sense of internal drive that people seem to admire. Just like admiring (perhaps secretly) the person who chooses to eat the muesli bar instead of reaching for the fifth Tim Tam.
In Abbott's case, however, its more like a muesli bar covered in thorns. Note last week's fitness timetable for the opposition leader; Friday before the parliamentary session he cycled up and down Red Hill four times along with a one kilometre swim in the parliament house pool. Saturday was an 8K run in Adelaide and Sunday a mere two and half kilometre Ocean Swim (where he was pictured budgie smuggling again despite promises otherwise). Monday was another long run and time in the gym and the last three days of the parliamentary week was the Red Hill cycle and 30 minutes in the gym per day. He is also scheduled to do is annual Pollie Pedal charity ride, to be launched this Tuesday. It involves a cycle from Melbourne to Sydney, averaging about 130 kilometres a day to raise money for indigenous health charity, the Poche centre. There is no doubt that the "mad monk" is bordering on self-flagellating here.
The fitness of pollies, past or present, does not compare. Unless you're thinking maybe Vladimir Putin or perhaps the ripped basketball playing Obama. Rudd certainly does not publicly display his fitness in the same way and our ex-PM Paul Keating, concerned about cancer, used to jump up and down on a trampoline to get the red blood cells moving. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, eccentrically rides everywhere in a suit, even up to press conferences. All of these create an image and even on a subconscious level, give us an idea and about who these people are.
Despite recent comparisons with the ex-opposition leader Mark Latham and Abbott, their attitude to fitness couldn't be more different. In the 2004 election campaign and after a constant and unrelenting mention of his man boobs, Latham famously challenged two journos to a race along Brisbane river. This was not for charity or for a show of goodwill towards the fourth estate. No, this was about Latham squashing others into the ground as he crossed the finish line first, leaving the Herald Sun's Gerard McManus behind with a torn calf muscle. Both of them may have an aggressive streak that powers them on but Abbott doesn't have a chip on his shoulder.
Abbott's cycling is, in the end, not all for publicity, he does have genuine love of exercise. But it is how he uses that image to his advantage that counts. That old bike, along with his appearance as a straight talker, could get him far.