Average statistics after leg 2 in Innsbruck, Austria
Glenda & Lumumba: 2
Derek & Claire: 2.5
Marcus & Michael: 3.5
Linton & Sharik: 3.5
Emily & Molly: 6
Quinton & Mattie: 6.5
Abby & Will: 7
Luis & Michelle: 7.5
Rich & Dom: 9
Tim & Rex: 9 (eliminated in Innsbruck)
Aubrey & David: 9.5
Yes I was wrong in my last post.
In my last post, I singled out Marcus & Michael for elimination as they had serious problems with navigation in Munich and thus I thought that it would leave them at the bottom of the pack but no, not only did they navigate without problems in this leg, they also aced both tasks to finish first with a very comfortable margin over the second place team. Ironically, I would have expected them to have done very well in the first leg given how physical the first leg was but they came in a modest 6th in the middle of the pack whilst this leg involved a singing task followed by the choice of a dancing vs music detour, their physical prowess wouldn't have helped them much in this leg apart from running to the pit stop after completing the detour. I was right though that navigation would be a factor and the two teams right at the bottom of the pack had major navigation issues: Quinton & Mattie were the last to arrive for the yodeling task after getting hopelessly lost whilst Tim & Rex lost precious time trying to find the car park in Innsbruck. Whilst I thought that their lack of fitness would lead to their elimination, Tim & Rex weren't even challenged physically in this leg given the tasks involved. Ultimately, they were terribly slow on both tasks and on top of that, they got very lost on the way to the designated car park and that resulted in their elimination; so these mistakes really had nothing to do with them being older and less fit.
Did we like the tasks in this leg?
Yes I did - the tasks were a good reflection of Austrian Alpine culture and that's exactly what we want to see on TAR. It was definitely better than the last leg in Munich; whilst you could say that yodeling was a bit of a stereotype and cliche when it came to Austrian culture, Claire's total meltdown there provided this leg with the drama we craved as TAR fans. I felt sorry for her as that's exactly the kind of task that I would have struggled with. The detour with the bells turned out to be harder than it initially looked, though Derek & Claire did get it on the first attempt whilst other teams took several tries.
Was the departure system fair though?
The teams were separated into three groups, three teams in the first group departing at 8 am, four teams in the second group departing at 8:15 am and the last four teams departing finally at 8:30 am. Whilst this must have sucked for the teams in the first group, it benefited the teams at the back of the pack knowing that they were no more than 30 minutes behind the leaders at the start. In the good old days of TAR, the departure times would have been determined by the time that the teams finished the previous legs, thus giving the teams at the front of the pack a massive advantage whilst often leaving teams at the pack a massive deficit to try to make up. I've got mixed feelings about this: on one hand, I'm all for the concept of 'fairness', if you've done well on the previous leg, you've earned yourself an advantage. On the other hand, the outcome of the previous shouldn't determine the outcome of the next leg - teams that were at the back should be given a fair chance to catch up without leveling the playing field altogether. I was frustrated with TAR Australia S6 (the current season that I'm watching but not blogging about) as they set all teams off at the same time in the episode S6 E15 and I was like, what? How is this fair? All in all, I am happy enough with what they have done here at the start of this leg.
Aah I love Innsbruck.
Beautiful Innsbruck is actually one of the top holiday destinations in Austria even though it is a relatively small city with a population of just 132,000. The city center is quaint, picturesque, very compact and all the main sites can be seen on foot. However, most people go there for the skiing and there are a multitude of incredible ski resorts within a very short drive from the city center; when I was there on holiday, I stayed in the city center and took a different ski bus everyday to a different ski resort, before coming back to get dinner in the city center - it was an awesome experience. Obviously, the teams were filming there in late May/early June, so there was no snow then but there's still plenty of outdoor summer activities for tourists who do visit in the summer. Notably, the pit start in Munich: the Friedensengel and Innsbruck were visited way back in TAR S3 E7, subsequent visits to Austria have been to Vienna, Salzburg and other areas of Austria.
How far was it from the yodeling challenge to the clue box in central Innsbruck?
Just 9.1 km or 5.7 miles - depending on traffic, it ought to have taken teams only 15 to 20 minutes to do that drive, however, it took some teams much longer if they couldn't find the designated parking garage. Once you get to the parking garage, the clue box is literally next to the entrance to the parking garage and would not have been hard to find.
How did it go so hopelessly wrong for Tim & Rex in Innsbruck?
They actually had a brilliant start to the day, arriving in third place at the yodeling challenge, just moments behind the first team, so they literally started that task in joint first place. However, they made a fundamental error when Rex chose to do the roadblock instead of Tim and he took forever to finish that yodeling challenge, taking five attempts - only Claire struggled more, she took six attempts. He gave some lame excuse about being dyslexic and foreign words - but dude, those weren't German words you had to learn! Yodeling is done with a bunch of sounds, not words from any language. Furthermore, it wasn't like he had to memorize these strange words or sounds, he merely had to read from the song sheet in front of him with the help of an instructor directing clearly to him the next words to sing. At least when Claire got through that challenge, she apologized to Derek for having taken that long - she didn't try to make any excuses the way Rex did. I just shake my head and thought, dude have you actually watched TAR before? That's why I think the casting directors need a slap in the face when they place these minor Z-list celebrities in TAR and they start bitching when they are made to do a task that is out of their comfort zone. We've seen far more difficult tasks on TAR before and the yodeling task is relatively simple and fun. Rex is old and fat, he doesn't understand how TAR works and he had a terrible attitude compared to Claire. That's why I'm glad to see them eliminated and I hope the casting directors will make sure that they will only cast people with a decent attitude in future seasons. Look this is TAR, you will be made to do tasks that are very difficult, nobody's gonna hand you a million dollars for having fun holiday - duh, like what were you expecting?!
They then got hopelessly lost on the way to the designated car park in central Innsbruck despite having a map and asking for help along the way from a local who spoke English very well (but mind you this is Austria and practically everyone under the age of 60 there is totally fluent in English). They weren't last when they finally picked up their clue in Marktplatz, they were in 9th place at that point, ahead of two teams. However, they picked the bells detour and it took them ten attempts to finally get it right, boy if you thought Rex struggled with the yodeling roadblock, they struggled even more with the bells. I remind you that other teams breezed through that challenge a lot more quickly: Derek & Claire got it on the first attempt, the same way Quinton & Mattie got through the dance detour on their first attempt - that's the kind of speed you need to survive in TAR, it is the ability to adapt to any crazy challenge they may throw at you, keep calm and scale that learning curve very quickly. But Tim & Rex really seemed to struggle even on a leg that wasn't that difficult compared to some of the other TAR legs we have seen in previous seasons when the teams were in places like deepest Africa, I was totally aghast when Phil said to them at the pit stop mat, "I was looking forward to more antics from you guys." Like seriously? Did anyone find them funny or interesting? Hell no, not at all - Tim & Rex represents the worst mistakes the casting directors can make when they cast someone who totally sucks at the race but they think, "he's a big character, he'll say something funny that'll make the audience laugh." Hell no, you need to cast decent racers who will excel at TAR - that's what makes a good season and stop casting old, fat guys like Rex who totally suck at this process!
All that drama over Dom's hat.
Dom turned up at the pit stop without her hat, which was part of the costume that they had to wear throughout this leg. I could see why she didn't want to wear it as it would be difficult to keep that hat on with her big hair. When she checked into the pit stop, she was genuinely shocked to learn about the rule regarding her hat and had no idea where it could have been - she even said that it fell off and might be in the streets before realizing it was probably still in the car. I do wonder what would have happened if she was not able to find that hat? Would they have been given a time penalty and if so, how long should that time penalty be? Would it have dropped them to last place and eliminated them? All that drama was avoided as the hat was indeed in the car and they only fell one place from 8th to 9th, but it might have been so different if that hat wasn't found! They are a very likable team and I hope this little mistake would teach them to read their clues more carefully - I love Dom's positive energy and attitude, I want to see them progress further in this season.
Who do you think is going to win the next leg and this season?
Derek & Claire are so strong, they would definitely be one of the favourites. I feel almost bad for saying this but I don't like it when there's a super strong team who are just going to ace everything and win every leg - it is evident from the way they staged a comeback to finish 4th in this leg that they are a very strong team as long as Claire avoids any more singing challenges. In terms of constructing a perfect team for TAR, I'm looking for a mix of physical prowess, brain power and most importantly, the ability to navigate. By that token, the other team that stand out include Glenda & Lumumba - they have yet to win a leg but with two second place finishes, they are currently the strongest team. Statistically, Linton & Sharik are the joint third strongest team at this stage, but I'm wondering if age might be a factor for Linton. Never say never, we have seen plenty of parent-child teams on TAR but really only one team stands out: Dave & Connor who won S24. I hate to say this but often on TAR, age can be a factor but the oldest winners of TAR are the delightful Kim & Penn from S33 and Penn was 47 when he won, now Linton has been performing well so far but he is 50, that's only slightly older than Penn so if they go on to win S34, then he would beat Penn's record as the oldest winner of TAR. So, I wouldn't rule them out either at this stage, but a lot will depend on the nature of the tasks in the coming legs.
Which team will be eliminated next?
It's hard to tell as the weakest team Tim & Rex are now gone, so going purely on the statistics, it would be either Rich & Dom or Aubrey & David who are next to go. However, given that teams are still driving themselves the next leg, I would also glad up the teams who have made serious navigation errors thus far and of course, Quinton & Mattie got so hopelessly lost on the way to Austria in this leg so they clearly struggle with navigation. I still haven't forgot about how Marcus & Michael struggled too with navigation in the first leg, so they're not out of the woods yet. In every season, the weakest teams will get eliminated first - that's just the way it is, the real race doesn't really get going until the weaker teams are all gone, that's when you know the strong teams have a real chance of elimination once they make a little mistake. In this leg, I kinda knew that Quinton & Mattie were going to be safe no matter how much they messed up as Tim & Rex were still around. But now, going into the third leg in Bologna, Italy, it's a lot harder to predict so I'm going to just say it will be Aubrey & David who will be next to go: sorry it's just that they're now statistically the weakest team now.
Okay guys that's it from me for now. I expect the competition to get a lot more intense in the coming legs. What do you think of the season so far? Have you been happy with the production team's decisions be it with the tasks, the way the legs have been constructed or with the casting decisions? Please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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