Archive > The Amazing Race 14
The Amazing Race 14 Speculation on Spoilers
woden:
Jinx! :lol:
walkingpneumonia:
--- Quote from: puddin on January 23, 2009, 01:23:24 PM ---It could be said that this is not the finale mat, they use that large one at the finishine. I hardly think they had time to have a regular "pitstop" in Hawaii. Perhaps they just sent the regular pitstop mat ahead? ..to LAX.
--- End quote ---
OK, never mind...
So this would be the Traveling Matt ?
apskip:
In my post of several weeks ago in a dialogue with walkingpneumonia, he identified S7859 OVB BKK 0205 1005 and I identified BKK HKT TG1205 1030 1150 as a route to fly from Novosibirsk to Phuket arriving the morning of Sat. Nov. 15. It has been my stated belief that teams would travel on the fabled TransSiberian Express railway (why else other than Lake Baikal would one want to go to Siberia?). There are only a few major stops on it, with Novosibirsk being one. Kransojarsk is on the line (as the 3rd largest city in Siberia it was designed in when decisions were made where it would go). The question is "would a trip from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk arriving Novosibirsk the afternoon of Nov. 15 make sense?" Trains go east and west. A logical stoping point for AR14 if starting in Krasnojarsk is Novosibirsk westbound. A logical stopping point eastbound is Irkutsk.
Here is the schedule from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk on a weekday (Thursday actually):
Dep.Kr Arr.No Duration
00:57 14:09 13:12
02:01 17:27 15:26
04:10 16:01 11:51
05:59 20:06 14:07
06:52 18:51 11:59
07:18 22:52 15:34
08:05 21:24 13:19
10:09 23:55 13:46
10:36 23:12 12:36
11:16 00:58 13:42
12:36 01:12 12:36
13:51 02:24 12:33
14:37 04:19 13:42
15:27 04:33 13:06
18:26 06:47 12:21
23:36 12:38 13:02
The similar schedules for Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk are:
04:03 21:44 17:41
05:21 06:13 24:52
06:56 01:18 18:22
07:45 01:03 17:18
08:54 03:19 18:25
09:16 03:28 18:12
10:28 04:07 17:39
11:52 05:34 17:42
18:10 18:35 24:25
19:16 13:00 17:44
20:55 14:40 17:45
The next question I have to ask is "could teams have flown from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk?" The answer is probably not. There are no nonstop flights on the appropriate days of the week (Friday). Connecting flights are possible but for a relatively short distance of 762 km one flight combination takes 8 hours through Irkutsk and all the rest take 11 hours through Moscow.
The next logical question is "can we accommodate Phil being in Delhi early on the morning of Nov. 14?" My guess is that he has a 36 hour lead due to an extended rest stop. So what would that allow him to do? One possibility is to get to Moscow(to be addressed below) on Nov. 14 in time for SU555 SVO DEL 1850 0330+1, connecting with DEL BKK TG724 1155 1725 and then with BKK HKT TG223 1820 1940. To do this he must have been unable to get the Moscow to Bangkok nonstop flight SU553 on Nov. 14, which should have been his first choice but could have been full. The next question is how Phil could get to Moscow-Sheremetyevo for these connections. Here are the possibilities that fit(although all have long connect times in Moscow):
Best is Irkutsk IKT SVO SU748 1400 1525
Novosibirsk OVB SVO 5N808 1055 1210
Krasnojarsk KJA SVO SU782 1040 1145
We don't know for sure that teams were on the TransSiberian Express but it makes good sense. For them to fly into Krasnojarsk makes good sense, but it could also have been Irkutsk or Novosibirsk. Which way they traveled on the TransSiberian Express is not known yet. Which city they flew out of is also not clear at this point.
apskip:
Following up on the possibilities that Krasnoyarsk presents, here are a few salient facts about the city of 900,000+ population and surrounding region:
1. It is a major port on the Yenisei River, the major south to north river in central Siberia emptying into the Arctic Sea. Due to the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam 32 kilometers upstream, the Yenisei never freezes in winter and never exceeds 14 °C (57.2 °F) in summer temperature through the city.
2. It is a major stop on the TransSiberian Railway
3. The most popular place of attraction for tourists visiting Krasnojarsk is the huge national nature reserve Stolby (Pillars in Russian) or the Rock Pillars. Stolby covers an area of 181 square miles with numerous giant granite rocks formations up to 100 meters high, many of very extraordinary shapes. Stolby is also a major rock climbing location, many local climbers intentionally do not use any belaying equipment and call their extreme sport "stolbizm", which is known around the world as solo climbing.
DrRox:
Well, we do know from TAR13 that WRP uses two production teams, that flip-flop during the race. It makes sense that each production team would have a pit stop mat. When the production team in Bejing was finished, they would have shipped their equipment back to Los Angeles.
Btw, just a tremendous bit of detective work mwooden!!!!!
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