Topic: TAR 27 Speculation and Discussion of **SPOILERS**

[gamerfan09]

This seems like a long stretch, but I think we'll be getting a Europe start.

We haven't had one since TAR17!

It also helps that if the start WAS Asia, teams would be arriving there at night.

Unless we get a Hong Kong night leg, we won't be seeing an HoO on the first leg considering how we haven't had one since TAR14.

[claude_24hrs]

I think there will have a choice for a Central America start and the region hasn't been visited since TAR 19, where Panama was the last country. Hope to get fingers crossed with another Spanish-speaking country.

TAR 1, TAR 2, TAR 4, TAR 6, TAR 9, TAR 12, TAR 14, TAR 15, TAR 17, TAR 18, TAR 22 and TAR 25 didn't visit any of Spanish-speaking countries, if include Spain.

If the race would get started around Central America, the teams will arrive in the night, as TAR 25 did a Caribbean start.

[Platrium]

There will be snow 1st leg maybe? We had only two in seasons 4 & 6.

That would be great "jump" from the hot beach starting line, I think.

If this'll happen, I think they'll head off to Australia or NZ. Have we seen winter legs from those countries? Also, Australia hasn't been visited since TAR18, so maybe there's a high chance of it being visited soon.

[fossil-racer]

Interesting tweets
https://mobile.twitter.com/DowntownDogster
https://mobile.twitter.com/nishifuller

Can anyone confirm?

[Marionete]

There will be snow 1st leg maybe? We had only two in seasons 4 & 6.

That would be great "jump" from the hot beach starting line, I think.

OMG YES PLEASE
That would make for an interesting difference.

Also, an Australian snow leg would be amazing. Though I'm not sure what the weather there is atm.

[theamazingracer21]

There will be snow 1st leg maybe? We had only two in seasons 4 & 6.

That would be great "jump" from the hot beach starting line, I think.

But there isn't a lot of snowy locations they can go to this time of year. If your snow theory is correct, likiky contenders are NZ or the Australian Snowfields South of Canberra (if so, I am on call to head down there and do some investigating for RFF)   

[Coutzy]

There will be snow 1st leg maybe? We had only two in seasons 4 & 6.

That would be great "jump" from the hot beach starting line, I think.

OMG YES PLEASE
That would make for an interesting difference.

Also, an Australian snow leg would be amazing. Though I'm not sure what the weather there is atm.

Cold, but the snow season only kicked off very recently, most of the seasonal workers have only arrived in the past week or two.

[gabriel15]

Wiki is useless for spec, anyone can edit it.

And to RFF, justmjlayson  !

And there are admins that can undo those edits.

[Coutzy]

Does anyone have a line on international departures from LAX?

With the starting line being announced and only a few miles away from the airport itself, might be worth checking out.

[claude_24hrs]

Does anyone have a line on international departures from LAX?

With the starting line being announced and only a few miles away from the airport itself, might be worth checking out.

Most terminals in LAX have international departures, except terminal 1 which is used by Southwest Airlines. Most non-US airlines are based in TBIT, exclude Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air China, Avianca and Copa Airlines.

[DrRox]

Does anyone have a line on international departures from LAX?

With the starting line being announced and only a few miles away from the airport itself, might be worth checking out.

There are departures from LAX to all over the world literally all day long. With the pretty early start and close proximity to LAX of the starting line, I would guess a first destination of S.America or Europe. For the most part, the Asia flights all leave late at night.

[Coutzy]

Does anyone have a line on international departures from LAX?

With the starting line being announced and only a few miles away from the airport itself, might be worth checking out.

There are departures from LAX to all over the world literally all day long. With the pretty early start and close proximity to LAX of the starting line, I would guess a first destination of S.America or Europe. For the most part, the Asia flights all leave late at night.

That's what I was driving at.

[Theo]

I think teams could basically depart at any time from LAX.

Does Phil need to get on the earlier flight than the other teams, or does he join the first flight along with some of the teams?

In case they do not make connection somewhere else, I found some interesting flights based on https://www.airport-la.com/lax/departures?t=15
VX290   CUN   Cancun   10:25   
DL937   CUN   Cancun   11:50

KE276   ICN   Seoul   10:20   
OZ201   ICN   Seoul   12:10
KE18   ICN   Seoul   12:40

UA198   PVG   Shanghai   13:25
CA1060   PVG   Shanghai   13:45   

BA282   LHR   London   15:35
NZ2      LHR   London   16:55   
VS8      LHR   London   17:55
   

[RachelLeVega]

I think teams could basically depart at any time from LAX.

Does Phil need to get on the earlier flight than the other teams, or does he join the first flight along with some of the teams?

In case they do not make connection somewhere else, I found some interesting flights based on https://www.airport-la.com/lax/departures?t=15
VX290   CUN   Cancun   10:25   
DL937   CUN   Cancun   11:50

KE276   ICN   Seoul   10:20   
OZ201   ICN   Seoul   12:10
KE18   ICN   Seoul   12:40

UA198   PVG   Shanghai   13:25
CA1060   PVG   Shanghai   13:45   

BA282   LHR   London   15:35
NZ2      LHR   London   16:55   
VS8      LHR   London   17:55
   

I would say a Leg 1 visit to South Korea is the most possible out of the four cities if there are no connection flights. I don't think TAR has deemed Mexico as a controversy-free country yet, though I hope it can be visited again in the future. China has already been visited recently (Guangzhou) and Shanghai was visited time and time again in seasons 16 and 21. London was also visited a season ago so I don't sense TAR filming at London-Heathrow for quite a while having said that.

[DrRox]

Normal path to S America is through Dallas or Miami. Dallas flights about every hour, all day long and about 4 flights to Miami to make connections there to S America red eye flights.

The few daytime Asia flights, all arrive at night, which doesn't make much sense.

Interesting that there are 3 flights from LAX to Melbourne......one for Phil and two for teams..........lol. Good TAR timing too

[DrRox]

Does anyone really think that TAR would go to South Korea with the current state of the MERS outbreak?

[BritishTARFan]

Well If they go to Asia they'll most probably go through Taipei

[Coutzy]

Normal path to S America is through Dallas or Miami. Dallas flights about every hour, all day long and about 4 flights to Miami to make connections there to S America red eye flights.

The few daytime Asia flights, all arrive at night, which doesn't make much sense.

Interesting that there are 3 flights from LAX to Melbourne......one for Phil and two for teams..........lol. Good TAR timing too

A night arrival isn't completely out of the question, but for it to work they'd almost certainly have to go back to the old ways of an first leg take-a-number-and-leave-X-minutes-apart-later, so definitely less likely.

[gabriel15]

So, with an open start, maybe they will ask the fans a question to try and solve the clue to their next destination like they did in Times Square in TAR25 last year?

[TheRabbi]

They've never done 2 LA - Asia starts in a row, which would normally make me think South America is first up.  But since 26 just came from SA in the penultimate legs, I'm going to say we're finally due for an Australia visit first up, for the first time in 9 seasons.  With the budget continuing to shrink, Europe is only first now with east coast starts, such as 17 and 25.

[theschnauzers]

It is hard to say where they might be headed first. In the past LAX flights have been quite a few hours after teams leave the start line, but this time it's really unusual with a start line almost an hour or two walk away from LAX.

Does anyone know the closest intersection to the Graffiti Wall? I tried to figure it out with Google Earth Pro last night and couldn't find it specifically labelled.

[eauvert]

Does anyone know the closest intersection to the Graffiti Wall? I tried to figure it out with Google Earth Pro last night and couldn't find it specifically labelled.

Are you looking for the Graffiti Walls themselves? If so, then they are situated a hundred feet (30 meters) southeast of the Venice Skate Park. Look for a bunch of palm trees on the sand.

The closest road intersection I see is Windward Ave and Ocean Front Walk.

[theschnauzers]

Does anyone know the closest intersection to the Graffiti Wall? I tried to figure it out with Google Earth Pro last night and couldn't find it specifically labelled.

Are you looking for the Graffiti Walls themselves? If so, then they are situated a hundred feet (30 meters) southeast of the Venice Skate Park. Look for a bunch of palm trees on the sand.

The closest road intersection I see is Windward Ave and Ocean Front Walk.

I figured that would be a good place to start to get an overview of the startline area with Google Earth.

Meanwhile, Brennan has tweeted that he will be there and he's bringing Rob.

[Declive]

This is a very close drive to the airport. I wonder if they're going somewhere else first...

[SamualDude]

I'm speculating an Oceania start. Possible first time Fiji visit or a trip to New Zealand. A wintery New Zealand leg is so needed. We just had a good snowstorm the other day so the mountains are covered in snow.