The club's 'root's' were laid down in April 2009 to record the 'antic's' of the hardy souls.... who initially rode the Coast to Coast cycle ride on the 11-13th September 2009.
The ride was in aid of St Teresa's Hospice, Woodland Road, Darlington, where Mr 'Absolutely Average' - PC 1444 Chris Barber (firearms) was cared for, by his wife Ann, family members & staff of the hospice before he sadly died, of cancer, after a short illness on the 5th April 2009. The ride was a great success and raised £10,254.47.
Chris was Durham Police’s Firearms expert and many of you might have been to a visit to the armoury at Police HQ or seen the Firearms demonstrations Chris put on at BikeWise every year.
As a result of this and the friendship that came from within the group it was decided to continue cycling and so ‘The Absolutely Average Cycling Club’ came into being.
(For those of you who knew Chris, you will be aware that this was one of his favourite sayings)
This year on the 3rd-5th of September the group are to cycle from Edinburgh to Newcastle on the Coasts & Castles Cycle Route, approx 200mls on a pedal cycle !!
Because we are all ‘absolutely average’ cyclists we decided to rename the route the Coast, CAKES & Castles 2010 route. (as hopefully we’ll be stopping for some Cake to ‘ease’ the saddle sores !!)
Once again the aim is to raise some funds for St Teresa’s Hospice in Darlington. Sadly it’s usually only when we are effected by someone being admitted to a hospice that we see the fantastic work that is being done to help families through traumatic times.
St Teresa’s certainly helped Chris & his family when he most needed it.
Please, if you can, visit our Just Giving page and make a donation to the Hospice, you can donate as little as £1 and it will help make our journey worthwhile and also to remember a first class colleague who was sadly taken away from us with cancer.
Please click on this link to read more and donate : 
To keep up to date with how the ride is progressing visit : Coast, CAKES and Castles 2010
Please come along on your bikes (Motorbikes or pedal bikes) and cheer us on our way… Next Sunday (5th) September we will be on the last leg from Seahouses to Newcastle where we’ll finish on the Millenium Bridge)
Thanks
Bob Brown