Jared Linden loves cycling. He’s good at it too.

The 26-year-old Royal Dean Forest Cycling Club member is a serial winner around Gloucestershire and beyond but for him it’s the riding that gets the juices flowing.

“Fundamentally, I enjoy cycling,” he said. “I don’t ride to race, I race to ride.

“Racing keeps you fit but I do it because I just want to be outside on a bike.”

Whatever the motivation, Jared has become a very good cyclist.

“He’s a good all-rounder,” said club secretary Martin Green, who is aware the club may be unable to hold onto one of their hottest properties. “He competes nationally at mountain bike level and regionally in cyclo-cross and has just won the Western Winter Cyclo-Cross League.

“Potentially we are a feeder club,” added Green, who cites the example of Colin Parry who enjoyed success at the club before moving on.

“Cyclists do move up the chain. If he gets spotted then he will be given an opportunity. He’s still young enough.”

Jared, who is an IT programmer, is not sure what the future holds in cycling.

“I definitely have a competitive edge – you can’t race without it – but how far I can go is something I’ve asked myself,” he said. “I’m not sure about the travelling that would be needed so it’s a commitment thing.

“I’ve got quite a lot of things going on.”

Asked what those things are and Jared replied: “Enjoying the Bristol music scene.”

He’s also entered a triathlon which take place at the harbourside in Bristol in June and confesses to being a bit of an “adrenaline junkie”.

His dad John, who is race secretary at the Royal Dean Forest Cycling Club, said Jared’s life could have taken a very different turn if his family hadn’t moved to the Forest of Dean when he was seven.

They moved from Basingstoke in Hampshire in the late 1990s and John explained: “Jared always says if we lived by the sea he’d be a surfer but living here in the Forest, mountain biking is the thing.”

Jared said he wasn’t certain that his dad was right about the surfing before adding: “I do like surfing. I’ve done it in Cornwall and Wales and it’s real fun. I guess if we had moved to Cornwall I’d have done it all the time.”

Back to the cycling and Green says there is no secret to Jared’s success. “He’s got a good engine, a good pair of lungs and is determined.”

He added that he also had “good genes”.

Dad, meanwhile, said: “He’s pretty good. He’s suffered a bit because there has been a dip in the popularity of XC mountain bike racing so fewer events.

“He enjoys competing at regional level in the cyclo cross and has won the summer series as well as the winter series.

“He’s a good regional level competitor. At local events like the Wild Boar Chase in May, which attracts 1,000 riders, Jared dominates.”