The Inaugural Liverpolitan Tweed Run

APRIL, they say, is the cruellest month, and this one has been particularly brutal.

At its worst, two weeks of school holidays, immediately followed by almost another fortnight under house arrest. Overdoing the food and drink until late, fragrantly festering under the covers until lunchtime. It has all added up to a big fat, Prozac'd you.

Now our friends over at The Flaneur website think it's time for some bracing air.

'Participants are those whose dress is dignified and stylish, urbane rather than urban'

They have organised the Inaugural Liverpolitan Tweed Run – a 15-mile round trip cycle ride that actually takes place on Wirral - taking in many public houses along the way.

A grand day out – but not for those who get “morbidly excited about sweating”.

The event is inspired by the highly successful London Tweed Run, and what's good for the metropolis is good for Merseyside.

Organiser Hildebrand Staggers tells us: “This is a minimum-exertion, maximum-elegance bicycle outing for ladies and gentlemen who find plastic helmets, mountain bikes and gaudy Lycra distasteful and intimidating.”

Indeed, recommended headgear is the pith or the deerstalker, or a vintage pashmina with your Pashley.

Moustaches, of course, will be handlebar.

“Our progress is to be elegant and convivial,” he explains. “Participants are those whose dress is dignified and stylish, urbane rather than urban. Pipe-smokers are particularly welcome.”

The ride is billed as informal, with opportunities for tea and buns, beer and chips along the way, as well as picnics and sea-bathing for the adventurous. Something the London run has yet to manage.

Interest is growing and even one or two families with children are taking part, we are told.

It costs nothing to turn up with your bike, and there are two meet-up points easily reached by Merseyrail from Liverpool (bikes are carried for free) or the Mersey ferry to Seacombe.

The Queen’s Royal Hotel on Marine Parade, New Brighton, is an early watering stop. With many other inns and cafes along the way, it is likely, says Staggers, that by the end of the day “we might permit ourselves to visit that venerable old hostelry on the Magazines Promenade, The Magazine."

From the Pavilion in Birkenhead Park to the Gun Battery is 7.6 miles, and with the return journey participants can boast of having ridden over 15 miles, “but without perspiration or indignity”.

*Inaugural Liverpolitan Tweed Run, Sunday May 15, Free. Meeting up at 9am-10.50am Capuccinos café, Pavilion in Birkenhead Park. 11.10am Seacombe Ferry. To find out more, visit here or sign up on Facebook here