You'll need a priest with lifegrip and a reasonably good knowledge of the race layout to get gold, this is mostly useful if you just need to cut down your time by a few more tolls.
1. Instead of going across the water as the placement of all the power-ups would make you expect, go up the hill towards the shiny blue and orange markers in the distance. (I put them there in this screenshot, you won't normally see them!)
http://i.imgur.com/rKLXPkp.jpg
2. This is the shortcut you'll normally see in video guides. But instead of taking it yourself, you can get a priest friend to use it instead and stand where the blue marker is. If you ride up to the orange marker, they can lifegrip you up to blue. Once you're up there, head towards the next checkpoint and keep going!
Full view: http://i.imgur.com/YcqIEJF.jpg
View from the top down (yes I know that's not a priest, I just wanted to show the position!)
Note: The route the priest will have to take is a bit annoying and involves 2 jumps, the good thing is that you don't have to worry about time whilst they're doing it because they can get themselves into position beforehand.
