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Matt Pohlkamp started BMX racing in his hometown of Cincinatti when he was only 11 years old. "One of the older 'cool' kids in my neighborhood raced and I followed him around and just thought he was so cool because he raced BMX," he remembers.

"My dad took me to a local race just to watch and to find out what the sport was all about. The next week we got a helmet and an NBL [National Bicycle League] license and the rest is history."

BMX stands for bicycle motocross, and is getting more and more popular. It became an Olympic event for the first time in the 2008 Summer Games.

The races, held on a dirt track, are fast and exciting to watch. Eight riders compete head-to-head in each heat to qualify for the next round. "The tracks vary in length but they average around 1500 feet with huge turns, dirt jumps and fun," explains Pohlkamp.

Pohlkamp progressed from local races to state races, eventually winning two amateur national championships. He turned pro, got sponsored and hasn't looked back.

Pohlkamp is still enjoying his career as a BMX racer. "I feel very fortunate to do what I did for fun as a kid, and now as an adult, make a living doing the same thing.

"The best things about being a professional BMX racer are truly living out my dream as a young kid in reaching the level I'm at. The feeling of accomplishment after a win is very hard to duplicate. The traveling, friends I've met and the racing, these are all great."

Alison Dunlap always loved to ride her bike, but she never really planned to become a professional rider. It just happened.

"You're just thinking year to year," she says. Then one day, you realize you really have a shot at making it as a professional.

She eventually became a professional mountain bike racer. But she spent years on the road racing circuit and competed in the Olympics in road racing.

She says the most rewarding part of being a racer is "being able to push your body to accomplish things that are so difficult."

The travel and people she has met along the way also stand out in her mind. But being a professional cyclist isn't all fun and games. It is a demanding full-time job.

Dunlap trained six days a week for four to six hours a day. She divided her time between her bike and the gym.

And after all the work and all the training, sometimes a racer meets the road face first. Crashes come with the territory.

At one point, Dunlap separated her shoulder. That's the same summer she fell, tearing up her face and knocking out her two front teeth in the process. The next year, it was a head injury that kept her out the whole season.

"Every time you crash and get hurt, you become more cautious and hesitant. But you also come out stronger and more determined," she says.

For anyone thinking about this career, Dunlap has this to say:

"It takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice." So be prepared.

"If you have the desire, you can go anywhere you want in cycling," Dunlap says. She thinks desire is more important to success than talent.

The beauty of cycling, racers explain, lies in its circular nature. Propelled by rotating pedals, racers wheel from start to finish, often beginning and ending in the same place.

Ron Hayman is a former professional national team member who is now a marketing specialist with a cycling accessory manufacturer.

Hayman was 14 when racing's speed and the thrill of competition became an obsession. A member of a local cycling club, he finished consistently in the top three in junior races in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California.

By the time he was 17, Hayman's obsession with racing had earned him a spot on the national team. He competed in the 1972 Olympics in Montreal that year. In 1976, he competed in the Munich Olympics. After the Olympics, he realized a career decision had to be made.

"If I really wanted to make a go of this thing, then I had to go to Europe to compete," he said. "So after we came back from the Olympics, I jumped on a plane."

When the plane landed in Europe in the fall of 1976, Hayman began what he refers to as his apprenticeship. He started racing for a club team, which provided him with little more than a jersey. His ability as a racer allowed him to survive for two years -- he managed to win enough prize money in amateur races to live on.

In 1979, he signed a contract with a sponsored Belgian team that allowed him to race professionally, which he did for eight years.

"I never really made more than $20,000," he recalls. "But like I say, cycling is an obsession -- the competition, the speed..."

Today, Hayman's professional life still revolves around cycling. After coaching national and pro teams, he became the marketing and sales manager for a company that manufactures bicycle racks for vehicles.

"I just can't seem to get away from it," he says with a shrug.

For Hayman, the wheels just keep rolling around.

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