RAB Wardell is showing me his latest war wounds, rolling up his jeans to display knees criss-crossed with scabs and scars in varying stages of healing.

In a job that regularly involves navigating 4ft drops and traversing craggy, bedrock trails, such scrapes are an inevitable occupational hazard.

He will contest the third round of mountain bike racing's Scottish Cross Country Series in Glasgow on Sunday. It will be the first competitive event to be staged at Cathkin Braes, the course which will host to the 2014 Commonwealth Games event.

Wardell is relishing taking on a field that includes Kenta Gallagher, the two-time British Under-23 national mountain bike champion, and Grant Ferguson, the 2013 British national U23 cyclocross title holder.

"I'd like to win this weekend," says the 27-year-old. "I was fairly close to Grant and Kenta at the British Cycling National Cross Country Series in Cornwall last month. It's good to have that level of competition; it spurs you on. The level of cross country racing in Scotland is high these days. There's guys like Gareth Montgomerie, Dave Henderson and Tom Evans as well as some good juniors too. It keeps us all on our toes."

Yet few of his competitors are likely to know the Cathkin Braes course as intimately as Wardell does. Not only has he put in the hours pounding the trails since early this year, he also provided input during the design process.

While reticent to get carried away with the notion of home advantage, Wardell acknowledges it does bring confidence. "The course plays to my strengths," he says. "There's a few jumps and plenty of places you can carry speed."

A decent rider can complete a 5k lap in around 25 minutes; Wardell is capable of posting a blistering sub-14 minute time. On Sunday they will race over seven laps. "It's not slow and steep technically, more a case of being able to jump well and link sections together as opposed to riding down something gnarly, rooted or muddy," he says. "It's quite a fast and flowing course."

Fife-born Wardell represented Britain as a junior, a steady progression at elite level leading to his selection for the Scottish team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Yet on his return from Melbourne, the bubble burst. Wardell, then 21, found himself paralysed by a lack of financial support in the sport and, with no clear-cut path ahead, he felt disillusioned.

He retired from competitive racing and took a job as a development coach for Scottish Cycling. But within months Wardell realised he wasn't quite done. "I didn't really like being that guy who could almost have been good," he says.

Wardell eased his way back into the sport, racing for fun, continuing to juggle training around his work as a coach. Last year, he realised it was now or never: something had to give.

He duly resigned from his job and focused his efforts on becoming a full-time professional rider. Things appear to be going to plan; Wardell ended last year ranked sixth British rider overall and won the rescheduled 2012 Scottish Cyclocross Championships at Strathclyde Park in February.

He currently rides for Trek UK and Alpine Bikes and is part of Scottish Cycling's programme, but accepts that it remains a precarious balancing act financially.

His determination is bolstered by the prospect of a place at next summer's Commonwealth Games. To meet the selection criteria for one of three spots in the team, Wardell needs to achieve 106% of the winner's time at a UCI-ranked event on two separate occasions. He already has one potential qualifying ride from the British series in Cornwall last month.

"It's likely we will have more Scottish riders qualify than there's places," he says. "My main focus is on trying to win races."

His next goal is the 2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, the first of six rounds starting in Albstadt Germany, on May 19. The British National Cross Country Championships follows at Cathkin Braes from July 20-21.

"This weekend in Glasgow is the final tune-up coming into the first peak of the year," he says. "It's a big race for me in that respect."

Wardell speaks like a man in no mood to waste a second more. "I just want to see how far I take this sport," he says. "I hope to still be doing it 10 years from now. I would like to think I could be British champion or win the national series at some point, perhaps be in the top 30 or 40 in the world. I don't want to be left with any regrets."