I gave up on M-B and haven't looked at it for a few years, so maybe doing the route a disservice now but for me its a glorified skyride with an awful lot of nodders and daft sods who get the bike out of the shed once a year. My advice is keep your wits about you and treat it more as a jolly than a serious timed ride unless you start off right at the beginning. Even then you get a mix of riders who will do it in 2.30 and then meet you as they ride home again, planks racing the first ten miles or so before their legs scream for mercy, the twunks that think they have to be at the front at every set of lights regardless of who they have to barge past to get there. If you start later you'll be amongst the 10 milers hanging on for grim death & idiots suddenly belting downhill (I got dragged off starting late one year coming into Preston when one of these arses who we'd not long passed gasipng along wobbled past at light speed far too close and snagged my bars with his rucksack strap).
Theres a few dull draggy lumps and if they go in through Lytham, the bend feels boring and endless. Dunno if they still go through Haigh Hall but if so, they chicained the woody exit route with straw bales, Not them most terrific idea in good weather as you're going in an instant from bright sunshine to a stygian dark downhill slope with immediate barriers to send you flying, I saw a few come a cropper like that.
A warm up ride in from Littleborough wouldn't be so bad & from times/routes you're riding, if you start off nice and early you should avoid and quickly outstrip the hobbyists though, and don't let my grumpy git persona put you off.
