I thought the cemetery was one of the nicest parts of the ride. The Navy Yard voyage to nowhere and getting back to DUMBO over cobblestones were IMHO the worst. And I'll second the salute to the NYPD guys who hustled ahead on both bikes and motorcycles like nobody's business to stop traffic. The problem was that there were just too few of them.
Today I was really happy to have pedals that clip only on one side. The only time I was clipped in was at 8 am on the West Side Greenway, riding down from the UWS to the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the start.