It wasn't quite the first thought that crossed Ryan Mania's mind as he sped across the winning line at Aintree two weeks ago but, as the magnitude of what he had just achieved by becoming the first Scots jockey for 117 years to win the Grand National sank in, so too did the size of the cheque that came with it.

At last, he thought to himself, I can buy that new Volvo I've been after.

Nice and safe, which is probably what you want when you've got a baby on the way. And good for a few miles, too, which is certainly what you need when you spend as many hours behind the wheel as the Galashiels 23-year-old does. Consider, for instance, what his schedule this weekend has entailed.

Yesterday he was at Ayr, saddled up for a handful of rides on the opening day of the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival. Last night, he was due to race back east for the final duty of his year as Galashiels Braw Lad: the declaration of his successor. All being well, he will point his car west again this morning for a reunion at Ayr with Auroras Encore, his Grand National mount, as they set out on their quest to add the Scottish National to their Aintree triumph.

It is, to be frank, a bit of a long shot. Quite aside from the fact that no horse has done the double since Red Rum in 1974, Auroras Encore will be carrying extra weight and the soft ground at Ayr won't do him any favours. Still, after the kind of fortnight he has just experienced, who is to say that the whirlwind of improbability has ended for Mania just yet?

We meet in a hotel a few miles from his home. Mania struck a chord in the racing public with his engaging and self-effacing response to victory at Aintree two weeks ago, and that combination of amiable disbelief is still there. "You know," he says at one point, "this is the kind of thing that happens to other people. You expect a top jockey to win the National, not little me from Galashiels."

Yet, funnily enough, winning the National was probably the most straightforward part of that weekend. Four-and-a-bit miles, nine minutes, 30 fences, stay out of trouble and you're there. Mania looked perfectly at home in his working environment; it was when he got back to his actual home that the sense of disconnection kicked in.

"We left Aintree just after seven and got to Gala just after 10," he recalls. "The rugby club had phoned to say I had to come down, or at least it would be good if I could. When I walked out on to the pitch it was just amazing the amount of people who had stayed behind to see me.

"In a way, it was harder being there than at the racecourse. It was just bizarre. I mean, everyone in Gala has always supported me and they have always been great, but they have never gone to the extent of asking for photographs and autographs. When I got to the rugby pitch, everyone came on and asked for these things.

"It was just weird. I was thinking, 'It's just me. Ryan. I've known you for years'. That was all very strange."

And life is still a long way from returning to normal. "The other night was the first time myself and my girlfriend had been able to sit down and relax," he says. "We just had a meal in the house, a takeaway. Everything else has just been chaos.

"I can wake up in the morning, just be me, and go out and do the dogs and horses and kind of forget what has happened. But then all of a sudden a reporter will ring or my agent will ring or something else reminds me that I'm the National winning jockey again. It is bizarre, that's the only way to describe it. It is completely different to what I'm used to."

All this, of course, after a return to earth that captured as many headlines as his triumph. Riding at a minor meeting at Hexham, just 24 hours after his National win, Mania fell from his mount, Stagecoach Jasper, and took a kick – "more of a stamp, really" – from a following horse. Right on the spine. He lay flat-out on the turf for 30 minutes before being taken by helicopter to hospital in Newcastle.

The after-effects are obvious from the stiffness of his movements. But he can ride and he can drive. So no problem, really.

"It would be nice to go one better than last year. Being Scottish, it would mean a hell of a lot to me as well. It wouldn't mean more than the Grand National, but in a way it is more realistic for me. If I was to win that it really would be a great achievement, whereas I still don't quite believe that I won the Grand National."