Recumbent on gravel sounds fantastic!
Really depends on the definition of gravel. I’d imagine they’d be a lot of walking based on your route descriptions. Easy disused railway gravel is as fast as the road, but I suspect there would be much of that.
But 2026 is a potential, based on road being even years, and current plans till then. May suits me better as well, provided a heatwave doesn’t hit. We will see.
Meanwhile I’ve been lost looking at bikes of riders. Lot of similar setups at a glance.