X

Bear rushes mountain biker in thrilling action-cam video

Bikers encounter a bear in a dramatic viral video featuring a heart-pounding chase scene.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
2 min read

A downhill mountain bike ride turned into a scene from an action movie after a bear joined the pack of cyclists. YouTube user Dušan Vinžík posted a startling video on Monday taken with an action camera on a trail at the Malino Brdo ski and bike resort in Slovakia. It shows the slo-mo moment when a bear charges the trail, hot on the heels of the leading cyclist.

The video starts off in typical action-sports fashion with some pleasant scenery and high speeds. The bear appears from the right-hand side, already running through the forest. It gets close to the biker before deciding to call off the chase.

The combination of sports footage, a large bear and a helmet-mounted camera launched the video to viral status with over 1.3 million views.

The video appears to be real, but keep in mind a 2014 incident purporting to show a bear chasing a scared mountain biker down a trail. That video later turned out to be faked. Bears do sometimes cross bikers' paths in real life. A grizzly bear attacked and killed a mountain biker in Montana's Glacier National Park in 2016.

It's unclear if the bear in this latest video thought the biker might potentially be food, or if it was curious or just happened to be out for a run when it crossed paths with the two-wheeling humans. Fortunately, nobody (and no bear) was hurt during the event and we got some spectacular (and hopefully real) footage out of the bargain.

Virtual reality 101: CNET tells you everything you need to know about VR.

Special Reports: CNET's in-depth features in one place.

Animals behaving badly amuse the internet

See all photos