Russell Crowe, star of films including Gladiator and A Brilliant Mind, paused during a bike ride with friends in Australia to share his location via a video posted to Twitter.

Out of breath and stripped to the waist, as his companions were, the Hollywood star turns his phone’s camera round to show the scene, before saying – after a suitably dramatic pause – “Middle of f*cking nowhere.”

The absence of a shirt provoked a string of appreciative comments from many fans, though one added, “The incipient sunburn looks like it’s going to be fun.”

Another said: “Put your Dad bods away.”

Crowe has been in the news for cycling before.

In 2009 he challenged a journalist to a 12-mile bike race across Sydney after she queried his fitness regime when he was photographed smoking a cigarette and having a snack.

She accepted the challenge. Crowe won.