00:00Novice or enthusiast, many of us are familiar with riding a bicycle.
00:04What you're probably not familiar with is the story of the first person to travel across the world on one.
00:13Thomas Stevens was an early rider.
00:16He was one of what became a pack of people, even in the era,
00:20who achieved incredible exploits in terms of travel and speed of travel.
00:26Around the World in 80 Days might be famously associated with 19th century travel,
00:31but it's a work of fiction, and its protagonist, bilious fog, relied on rail, plus the odd hot air balloon.
00:39In April 1884, Thomas Stevens set off from San Francisco on his very real attempt to circle the globe on a penny-farthing bicycle.
00:49His journey was completed two years and eight months later in Yokohama, Japan, where he remarked,
00:55distance actually wheeled, about 13,500 miles.
01:01The journal he kept was published in the book Around the World on a Bicycle.
01:05It was a tremendous feat for a man with no remarkable background at a time when cycling was still in its infancy.
01:12People were still wondering what you could do with a bicycle.
01:16How liberating was this new technology?
01:19He was not an Olympian.
01:22He was seemingly a fairly regular guy who made his way mile by mile by bicycle,
01:28and that's one of the most impressive things about him,
01:30is that he was kind of an everyman who just happened to keep going,
01:35and to be motivated enough to make it happen.
01:38Thomas Stevens was born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1854,
01:43but had emigrated to the United States, aged 17.
01:46Originally, he only planned to cross the North American continent,
01:50but that achievement secured him the sponsorship of a notable cycling magazine,
01:55and he set sail across the Atlantic to continue his journey east.
01:59A route through Europe and Asia that, even by today's standards, would be considered almighty.
02:06He carried only a satchel of supplies, a change of clothes,
02:10Smith & Wesson pistol, and a poncho coat,
02:13which would often form a makeshift tent when propped up by his bike.
02:17He propelled himself through downpours of 50-degree heat alike,
02:21with treacherous roads making falls from a height of 2 metres a frequent concern.
02:25Stevens had close encounters with violent mobs, sinking bogs, mountain lions,
02:31and even the authorities, when he was chased out of Afghanistan and had to reroute.
02:36But alongside the audacious resolve and self-described heroic flourishes he wrote about,
02:42the book is far more notable for his vivid observations of scenery and local customs.
02:48Thomas Stevens doesn't really talk about himself almost at all.
02:52It's a very visceral, street-level perspective on what was going on in the world at the time.
02:59He had a very close-up view of Afghanistan and Persia, India, China,
03:06at a time that a lot of people didn't venture there.
03:09He is, of course, speaking from a fairly strict cultural perspective.
03:15He has this sort of typical Victorian measuring stick.
03:18But then he gets to the Taj Mahal and he really admires it.
03:23He's so impressed by the architecture and the art.
03:26And for once, he doesn't compare it really to anything.
03:30He's just so mesmerised by it.
03:33But the significance of Around the World on a Bicycle transcends Thomas Stevens.
03:38He uses sporting ventures as a portal to remarkable lands and stimulating experiences
03:43that are beyond the understanding of most of his audience.
03:47So it may be the earliest example of something we recognise today as so-called sports porn.
03:54I've coined the term sports porn, which is a term that existed before,
03:59but here I'm defining it as writing or photography or video,
04:05any kind of medium that gets you excited to go outside and to do sort of wildernessy things.
04:13What qualifies it as sports porn is that it's also kind of superficial.
04:18It's not a literary story.
04:20There's not a lot of depth, but it's very vivid and it's very attractive
04:25and it transports the consumer to a place that they want to go.
04:29Today, of course, pretty much anyone in the world can narrate their story
04:34and publish it in some way, shape or form.
04:37One hundred and thirty years on from Thomas Stevens's seminal feat,
04:42his spirit to see the world through sporting endeavours thrives.
04:46His target audience endures too, now able to gorge on inspiring adventure
04:51through ever more impressive and accessible media.
04:54And we don't all need to be globe-trotting thrill-seekers to get involved.
