This is my C2C route- Liverpool to Hornsea ....it's the shortest C2C I could find
Its also comparatively flat, I think. The best bit is that it is really quiet - on a Saturday lunchtime, I hardly saw a car on some of the A roads. The city centres are obviously busy, and the peak up to Scouthead...from then on you're on your own.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1145326858The route starts on the East Lancs and follows it into Manchester. There is a bike path on the east-bound side that is mostly wide and in good condition, and obviously much safer than cycling on that road. In Manchester, cut across to the A62 towards and through Oldham.
From Oldham, it'll start climbing up to Scouthead and then more up to were the Pennine Way crosses (this is called Standedge cutting on the map)...now you're high up with a nice view across the moors. It doesn't get higher than this, but there is more climbing... leave the A62 and turn right onto Mount Road into Marsden.
Follow that road past the south of Huddersfield, going through Blackmoorfoot and then cutting across some lanes to Fenay Bridge, where you'll hit the A642...for a last climb. Follow the A642 into Wakefield. The route MMR made then leaves it and goes to the north-west of the city centre, mostly on quiet streets, but there's also a stretch through a park and on a bike path. One bit is gravel, but the rest is tarmac. You could also just stay on the A642, because you'll rejoin it once out of town...for a bit, before cutting across on the TPT (good tarmac, plus a very short bit of gravel) to the B6135 (you can avoid the TPT by staying on the A642 and turn off directly onto B6135). This will take you into Castleford..
In Castleford MMR tried to send me on a tow path to cut across to Fairburn on the A1246....don't do that. The tow path barely exists and is so bumpy you'd want to walk.... I've changed the route so it goes around on the road.
Cross the busy A1246 and ride on the quiet country lanes across the fields to Selby. From Selby, follow the A163 to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor (they have fucking weir place names over there....you'll pass through Foggathorpe, my favourite
). Continue to Market Weighton and then ride through pretty bike country, the Yorkshirre Wolds, to Beverly. From here it's the A1035 to Hornsea. I had a rainbow over the sea greet me there.