That was my longest ride since a 300 last July and must admit I had serious thoughts of getting the train back from Ashchurch but plugged on and made it home. Very good route in the main although the road which has Stanford Bank on it did seem pretty busy traffic wise and there were still a fair few stretched out bunches but generally the motorists were pretty patient, I didn't hear any "road rage tooting" at least.
After Bromyard I must say the roads were amongst some of the worst I've ever ridden on in terms of surface break up and then later on there were some very good surfaces. I had a very fortuitous meet up with 2 other riders one of whom was towing his mate (Graham?) along, he was very strong and whoever you are, thanks for the brief tow just when I need it.
They stopped for a break just as the wind became proper head and then they caught and passed me again but I couldn't keep up on the small drags.
Most frustrating part of the day? Not being able to find the HQ at the end 
, I didn't turn right at the pub and there ensued much backwards a forwarding until I found someone to ask.
Anyway, shower and a superb chilli later I was off home.
Disagree... the lanes were not as bad... maybe you are used to bigger roads or less mud, but they did seem OK to me... didn't even get a Belgian tan, despite not using mudguards. Surface was pretty good throughout. No potholes to report.
Didn't find the stretch of road you mention particularly busy, but I was ahead on my own, so maybe easier for cars to pass me.
The only "sketchy" stretches were the A40 out of Ross and the A45 (or 46?), but they were both avoidable, using the side path, which I didn't, being a religious GPS follower... I assume those using directions were smarter.
There was a bit of a faff with the GPS track at the end/beginning, but I kind of remembered where the HQ was, so I got that one right. MAybe something for Phil to look into, not sure what that was about.
