Members of Macclesfield's cycling elite have been named in the New Year’s Honours list.

Newlywed Olympic champions Laura and Jason Kenny have been awarded CBEs in the Queen’s honours and Paralympian Sophie Thornhill receives an MBE, all for services to cycling.

CBE stands for Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is one step below a knighthood in the royal honours system.

The couple, who live in a cottage in Chelford, Macclesfield and married in the town earlier this year, can add their new honours to OBEs they were given in 2013 and of course to their haul of Olympic medals for track cycling.

They returned to Macclesfield from the Rio games this summer clutching five gold medals between them.

The honours top off a year of wins for the couple who also received Freedom of the Borough status from the council last month, the highest possible civic honour, along with Sophie Thornhill and fellow paralympian Libby Clegg.

Jason, 28, won three golds in Rio, taking his total to six, while Laura, 24, who was formerly named Trott, doubled her personal tally with another two making her Britain’s most successful woman Olympian of all time, after winning her fourth gold medal in the omnium race.

Over the last three Olympic games, this brings the couple’s total medal haul to an impressive ten.

The couple married in a secret ceremony at St Alban and St Paul Church in Macclesfield, 20 minutes from their home in Chelford, in September away from the media before a reception at the Hilltop Country House in Prestbury.

They can often be spotted training on rides around the lanes and hills of Macclesfield.

England's Helen Scott (left) and Sophie Thornhill with their gold medals after winning the Women's Para-Sport Sprint Final at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome

Sophie Thornhill is a visually impaired racing cyclist who competes in para-cycling tandem track events.

She has enjoyed a rapid rise to the top of the para-cycling world since joining the Great Britain Cycling Team in May 2013 at the age of 17.

She was born with oculocutaneous albinism which affects the pigment in her skin and eyes.

Sophie attended Poynton High School, the same school as fellow para-cycling world champion Dame Sarah Storey, and met the para-cyclist Anthony Kappes, also visually impaired via her uncle who encouraged her to train as a track cyclist.

She joined the Great Britain Cycling Team in 2013 and was partnered by Helen Scott.

In Rio Sophie won gold in the Women’s B 1,000m time trial with pilot Helen Scott and a bronze for her efforts in the Women’s B 3000 Individual Pursuit.