Yeah, I hear you on the declines. However, there is only one real decline just after you get started. After that it is almost a steady 2-3% all the way. I have found that I can push myself a bit harder with a little incline, but I'm not a TT guy at all.
If you are using a power meter you could use the normalized power for that route.

We hit up a nice 72 mile route which included Auburn and the confluence today. Actually rode about 15 miles with the Efemkin brothers from the AG-2R team! That was kinda cool.