Are you all for real????? This is not meant to sound like the old monty python sketch I am genuinely amazed to hear this (especially from military people). I rode from Calais to Cannes with a night stop of about 7 hours. Got caught in the ****ing rain with rennsport tyres and no waterproofs just past Orange as I was unprepared for the long ride as I was meant to put the bike on the traiin in Paris but due to chaos on the M20 got over to France far too late to make the train arrived in Cannes and rode the twisty "route de napoleone" to Castellane and back the following day once the sun came out?????????
