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 will be 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. In 2005, he won the NBL Spring Nationals.
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 1996 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.
In 1994, 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.