puddin, ancitipating that Christmas is coming, says "Hey since were discussing this here ..
As far as I can tell the rains took a break between July 20th & July 27 in the Mumbai area so might we still have a second location ( like some of us are thinking) where/when were monsoons in India? But then again BVM lies so who knows?"
The TIMELINE makes it pretty difficult to fit a second India leg in. Here's why:
Arrive India slightly before midnight on the beginning of July 23, almost surely in Mumbai.
Tasks around Mumbai will take at least the morning. Pitstop could begin before noon.
Flights go out after 11pm to Bangkok, with connection to Taipei if taking CHATEAU's route, arriving there July 24 between 1115 and 1155. An alternate is a nonstop Mumbai to Taipei leaving July 24 0630 arriving Taipei 1500.
The same flights go out after 11pm to Bangkok plus one at 1235am to Bangkok, with connection to Osaka, arriving there July 24 at 1900. There is a lengthy wait in Bangkok on July 24; if one day later alternate flights would arrive Osaka 1440.
I doubt that task completion would happen if in Taipei and we know anyway of the siting July 26(probably, maybe it was the 27th) at Taipei 101. So, we know in the Taipei case that it would not finish until the afternoon of July 26 at the earliest. With TBC teams could go to Osaka immediately and maybe finish up there that evening. That leaves the morning of July 28 to fly back to Taipei and get positioned for the July 28 CI12 afternoon flight Taipei to Anchorage. It does not leave any time for an extra leg back in India.
If we go back to the Osaka case, teams would finish their tasks by the late morning of July 25 and if a TBC go immediately on to Taipei. They would do tasks until about noon on July 26, when they are due at Taipei 101 for their siting. Afterward, they would have a 36 hour extended pitstop which would take them into the early morning hours of Jule 28, when they would be flying on CI12 from Taipei to Anchorage. This case is a lot logistically simpler than Chateau's backtracking, but that doesn't by itself mean it is right. In this case we would have one whole day which could be eliminated and devoted to a second leg in India. What we don't have is an available leg, as all are spoken for. the only way it could happen is if they compressed both Taipei and Osaka into the same leg. It isn't impossible, but I highly doubt it. Also, that would eliminate the pitstop after leg 10 and force that to be a TBC into the Alaska leg. That's a bit awkward.
The major issue on which this analysis is vulnerable is the requirement to fly our July 28 instead of 29th. This rests on some special information that has yet to be revealed publicly(it's not mine) about arrangements for teams on July 29 in Girdwood. My conclusion from that is that World Race Productions would not have chanced the late arrival of a transcontinental once a day flight, but would have assured that all final 3 teams were in Alaska the prior day (July 28). They could have elected to take the risk by setting up the course for departure from Taipei on the 29th(and arrival Alaska that morning), but I doubt it.