Quote Originally Posted by BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY View Post
snip
To give some perspective my chocobo is rank 48 so I've seen my fair share of races. Here is a few reasons why you would want to decelerate other than to catch your breathe:

1. BRIARS! You want to avoid this so decelerating is often a good idea if you see someone ahead of you about to get it. However the other more strategical use is if you have briars yourself, you gain immense lane control! If everyone knows you have it and you are in 1st place you can force everybody else to stay behind you while conserving stamina just by not using it and placing yourself in the lane accordingly.

2. You can not overtake a person who is directly in front of you due to collision detection. You can sit there with your ass in someones face and they can't do anything about it unless they try to go around you resulting in speed loss. You can also body block from the side so its smart to decelerate to let the person go ahead if it means you're going to run into something less than desirable.