I had many wtf moments but you guys pretty much described it all. A useful tip for those who smacks the ground hard and stop, bounce, or explode: if you equip the legendary race helmet that allows you to speed or slow your decent, it is useful to tilt back to mitigate your decent into a softer landing. Fast decent (tilting down) is great for places like right after the teleportal on Venus on the last stretch to the finish line. I usually use fast decent in all cases except the big launch chasm in Mars (otherwise would smack into the cliff side) or the the long drop on Venus w the floating walker tank platform.