In the 'Celebration of Sport Awards 2014’ event at the Cardrona Hotel, they were given the accolade Club of the Year.

Organiser and ex-chairman David Waterston said: “We are surprised and delighted to win the award.

“We just enjoy cycling and if we can transfer our love of it to kids and people of all ages then we have done a good job.

“Our biggest problem now is numbers as we have 250 plus. It’s a good problem to have but we are worried that we won’t meet people’s expectations.” The club has mushroomed since it was set up around 25 years ago in the Neidpath Inn. “We had just six members to begin with and everybody chipped in,” said Mr Waterston. “Now we get a lot of help from Borders Sports and Leisure with funding and Alpine Bikes also help.

“We have around 25 kids’ club leaders and 25 adult volunteers. It’s a big demand on our time as we all have full-time jobs.

“The success is certainly not down to one person - it really is a team effort and everyone chips in with their strengths.

“We all enjoy a personal reward with what we put into this and to get an award for it is the icing on the cake.” The membership, which has an age range of six to 74, has continued to grow rapidly in recent years.

“It used to be that mountain biking was the most popular but now roadside cycling leads the way thanks to the Tour de France and Olympic Games,” said Mr Waterston.

“We seem to get inquiries day in day out about people becoming members. We can take as many adults as we like but the biggest problem is catering for the kids. We have 90 of them at the moment and if they all turned up wanting to go out to Glentress it might be a problem.”