A SADDLE-SORE team of 13 employees from 3M Aycliffe are set to raise about £2,500 after completing a tough coast-to-coast sponsored cycle ride over the weekend.

The cyclists pedalled their way over a 145-mile route from Workington to Sunderland, in two days.

They passed through the centre of the Lake District and over Shap Fell, in the Pennines, along the way.

Organiser Paul Richardson, one of the cyclists, said: "It was a particularly gruelling route with much of it off-road and it seemed a very long way. But the money we raised certainly made it all worthwhile."

All of the sponsorship money raised through the marathon effort is going to Rosebank School, at Ferryhill, which caters for children with special needs.

The fundraising efforts of cyclists from the Heighington Lane site have become something of an annual event.

Since their first marathon ride in 1997, their pedal power has raised around £12,100 in total for good causes.