The anticipation right before a race is the worst part for me -- I worry about everything that can go wrong. I don't visualize a race, I just look at where I want to go, press "play" in my head and see myself landing jumps and blasting through moguls.

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The holeshot is maybe 70% of the race. If you don't get it, the roost is so bad you can't see. These sleds have 750-to-1,000cc, 200hp engines with huge paddle tracks shooting ice chunks the size of golf balls at 50 mph. They smack your hands, your chin, your nuts. Last year, I had one come under my helmet and give me a bloody lip.

Once the flag drops, the race is easy. The Winter X course is about 3,000 feet long. It's basically straight-like a drag race uphill with 75-foot jumps. I stay on the pipe the whole way. We're going about 75 mph, and you let off a little to time the jumps, then the throttle's right back to the bars. You keep it pinned through the mogul minefield and try to skip off the tops of the bumps. You're dealing with lots of speed, and if you get off balance, stuff happens fast.

The race is only about 45 seconds long, so there's no relaxing. I've never been passed at the finish line and don't plan on it-I've seen it happen and that would suck. I don't celebrate until I'm on my way down the hill. For all the tough times in the trailer, working on the sleds until late, the months of preparation-those 45 seconds make it worthwhile. I wish the feeling would last all day.
-as told to Vince Castellanos

This article appears in the February 3 issue of ESPN The Magazine.