my mum and dad have offered to buy me a camera for my birthday, ive decided i want a slr (unless theres a reason not to!?), what do i need to look for when getting one?

it will mainly be pictures of biking, as i understand it i will need one that takes a high number of frames a second for a few seconds, with a wide angle lense. id also like to be able to swap the lense for other uses such as taking photos at car shows.

is there a particular brand which is better for the sports type pictures than others?