IF his father had paid heed to the childhood grumblings of a young Grant Ferguson, life could have taken a different course entirely.

It was with heavy heart that the Scottish mountain biker first joined his younger sister at a weekend kids' club on the trails of Glentress and Innerleithen near their Peebles home. "I didn't want to go," recalls Ferguson. "I remember thinking: 'This will be rubbish. Why are we wasting a Saturday riding up here?' I was on this old bicycle that was falling apart. But as soon as we had finished the ride, I thought: 'That was awesome.' I pretty much fell in love it with straight away."

Now 20, Ferguson won the elite men's British National Mountain Bike Cross-Country Championships for the second consecutive year on Sunday, three months after claiming his first under-23 UCI World Cup podium place with a bronze in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

It would appear to bode well as Ferguson gets set to open his Commonwealth Games campaign at Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails a week today. The course is one he knows well having taken the British national title in Glasgow last summer. "It was good preparation," he says. "I did a Scottish race on it as well. I've done two races on that course and I won them both."

He is cautious, however, about being seen to hang a medal around his own neck before racing has even started. "To say I want to do my best is probably the way to put it," he says. "I'd like a medal - that is my main goal - but I'm going in with an open mind. There will be some strong riders and I need to make sure I'm in the right shape to be at the front. It will be a tactical race."

Ferguson is the surprise package of the Team Scotland squad, named for the road race in addition to cross-country mountain biking. "I will be there to do a job on the road and work for the team," he says. "[David] Millar and [Andy] Fenn will be the two main boys for Scotland and I'll be there to support them. You've got some big-time riders in there and it will be amazing to be part of that."

Mountain biking remains his main focus and Ferguson is joined in the Scottish men's team by Kenta Gallagher and Gareth Montgomerie, while Lee Craigie, Kerry MacPhee and Jessie Roberts comprise the three-strong women's side.

Ferguson and Gallagher have been close friends and rivals for the best part of a decade. They now share a flat in Manchester, where Ferguson has been based for the past three years under the British Cycling Olympic Academy Programme.

"Kenta and I train together every day," he says. "We've known each other for a long time now and have been racing each other since we were under-10s. We raced as 'Sprogs', which is under-12s mountain biking. It was a big group back then, but has got smaller over the years."

Ferguson believes that having two burgeoning talents neck-and-neck has been a useful spur to keep both riders on their toes throughout their respective careers. The pair, alongside Montgomerie, bring something distinct to the table within the Scottish camp.

"Kenta's got different characteristics to me, he's a lot stronger in a sprint finish and those explosive areas of the race," says Ferguson. "I'm stronger over a bit of distance and if there's any climbing. Then you have Gareth who has the experience of competing in a previous Games. Together it should be a strong team."

Ferguson is nicknamed "the Frog", a moniker bequeathed by a coach when he was in his early teens and one that has stuck firmly. "It comes from being tall and skinny," he says with a laugh. "It was given to me at an under-14 Scottish Cycling training camp. I've had a few other nicknames as well: the 'Milky Bar Kid' is one I get a lot."

He has recovered well from the nasty crash which put him out in the opening lap of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany, last month and left Ferguson with stitches in his knee and a bashed-up shoulder.

"Usually when you crash you can see it happening and have time to get ready to hit the ground," he says. "With that one I was going so fast into the corner that by the time I knew what had happened I was already sliding along the ground and had no time to prepare.

"I jumped back up and did another lap but my arm felt weak which meant I couldn't hold on to the bars properly. It's the first time since I started doing World Cups that I've had a DNF [did not finish] so I was a bit gutted about that. It was a new experience and one I hope not to repeat any time again in the near future." Certainly not in the next week, anyway.

Beyond Glasgow the tantalising lure of the 2016 Olympic Games means there is unlikely to be much pause for Ferguson to draw breath. "We have to score enough points this year and next to go to Rio so that is going to be important," he says. "After the Commonwealth Games we are straight back into World Cups and things are still pretty busy. I have a feeling that the weekend after I compete in Glasgow I'm on a flight to New York. I won't be putting my feet up."