Don't see the problem. (Destiny)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 17:34 (3144 days ago) @ Ragashingo

And, again, your delayed start probably helped you just because you didn't have to fight five other racers during the start of the race...

Can confirm this. I think it's fair to say that I'm reasonably fast, but I have to separate from the pack before I start seeing good times. When there's people near you, the constant knocking about really slows you down, due to either missing gates or hitting obstacles. There's even a thing where you can't trick if someone's directly below you on a jump.

So there's that stuff, plus the people up ahead have narrower gates so they're more likely to screw up, which we know to be an intentional rubber-banding mechanism.

Also, watch the speedometer. At the beginning, far behind, your top cruising speed on level ground without a gate is 130Km/H, boosting to between 170-180 on gates. Your speed later on, in the pack, is the same.