Watch this amazing footage of a man out-sprinting a bear on his mountain bike

The video is almost certainly for real. Bears can run at 40mph so it’s highly likely this guy could gently pedal away from it, even though he is off-road and on the flat.

Bears are also renowned for their sense of smell, so hiding 10 feet away behind a tree would certainly throw him off the scent.

But most importantly, hiding would have been irrelevant if he could bunny-hop: the fallen branch would have disappeared under his wheels as he sailed across.

Read our guide to the bunny-hop, how to do a stoppie and other useful bear-avoidance techniques…

When to pump and when to pedal

Flat-out pedalling doesn’t always equal faster riding. Here’s how to go faster and expend less energy at the same time.…

On a serious note, there are plenty of bear encounters for real, just watch this video from Jasper, Alberta in Canada: