A ride of three halves:
The first half was everything that makes Fridays rides great - whizzing along through dark lanes and villages in outstandingly cooperative weather.
The second half was wet enough for waterproofs but nowhere near Mancunian, and warm enough that it didn't really matter. I gave the mudguardless riders a wide berth and all was well.
The smugness at turning left before the annoying climb at South Ferriby was short-lived: I'd brought a
Mildly Inappropriate Bike for the Comedy Off-Roading section (riding on singletrack through eye-level grass certainly qualifies as comedy), but had swapped back to SPD pedals in anticipation of a drenching (quick-drying sandals FTW) and having to get off and push, so no drama. Wasn't so keen on the hardpack with a scattering of railway ballast - the Streetmachine would have laughed in its face, but with narrow road tyres on a small-wheeled bike that prefers to be going at speed I did feel like I could be ceremonially deposited in the mud at any moment. Nevertheless, as a variation it's more group-friendly than climbing the hill as the traffic's picking up, and the bonus extra bridges were welcome. (Sadly I'd neglected to collect a Pooh stick from Birmingham's Shiny! New! Segregated Cycle Infrastructure! on the way up.)
The third half involved re-tracing the route along the poorly-maintained roads of Hull (which were on their usual form) and a confusing Birmingham-style scary roundabout disguising the route to North Ferriby as the sliproad to the A63. From there to a shared-use path alongside the A63, which was fine, a footbridge with the sort of 180° turns that work best on a Brompton, and the
Morrisons in Brough for a loo and drink stop. Then a faster ride on much more civilised (and surprisingly smooth) roads to South and North Cave (I didn't see a cave), Followed by South and North Cliffe (I didn't see a cliff), a brief snooze in a 3-star Audax Hotel in Everingham (there was a nice view of a bollard), then a quick thrash back to York via Melbourne and Elvington. In my considered opinion the B1228 could do with a visit from the resurfacing fairy.
Not quite 200k in total.