Four years before the inaugural Tour de France, four cyclists known as 'Overlanders' set out on a race around Australia. On 24 November 1896 a wiry and wily bushman named Arthur Richardson left Coolgardie for Adelaide by bicycle. Carrying only a small kit and a water-bag, he followed the telegraph line. After much 'sweating and swearing' on sandy roads west of Eucla, and enduring the scorching heat, 31 days later he became the first man...