Tour de Oz: The extraordinary story of the first bicycle race around AustraliaFour 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 to pedal