Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4A → Leg 4B → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 15.05 – “I’m lookin’ for it!”
Teams are in for a holiday treat this Leg. But first, they must fly from Genoa to Moscow, Russia!
Teams will be on one of two flights: Air France via Paris-CDG arriving at 7:50pm and Alitalia & Aeroflot via Rome arriving at 8:15pm.
Upon arrival in Moscow, teams must travel by metro to Red Square and search the entire area for the cluebox. But the cluebox is empty because it will only be filled tomorrow morning at 6am.
The morning clues will direct teams to travel again by metro to VDNKh. And at the front gate, teams will find the Detour: Movement or Stationary.
In Movement, teams must learn a Russian dance from a teacher and then find 10 people to teach the dance to. Everyone must then perform the dance correctly to receive the next clue.
In Stationary, teams must search the area for large Cryllic letters which spell out “race” (гонки). They must then carry all the letters to the main gate of VDNKh and spell out “RACE”. They will then search through stacks of paper to find one printed with “гонки” to exchange for their next clue.
After the Detour, teams must travel by metro to Moskva Yaroslavskaja Train Station where they will hop on a 21! hour train ride, departing at 12:50pm to Kotlas Jushnij Station, arriving at 10am tomorrow morning.
Outside the station, teams must choose a 2018 Kia Sorento which will contain their next clue.
That clue directs teams to drive to the town of Veliky Ustyug.
Teams must find the Veliky Ustyug Post Office where they will find the next clue AND the Double Yield board! (If activated.)
After checking in at the Yield, teams must choose 10 letters from children across Russia who write to Ded Moroz or Father Frost with their wishes for presents. Once they’ve chosen 10 letters, they will be given the next clue.
That clue directs teams to the home of Ded Moroz, a Slavic fictional character similar to Father Christmas who brings presents to children on New Year’s Eve.
There are more than 150 Ded Moroz hanging out here. Teams must search amongst them for one who will greet them a Merry Christmas in Filipino! They will then ask that Ded Moroz to accompany them to a nearby station where they must create a statue replica of this living Father Frost. Once approved, teams will receive the next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If at least three teams have a case of mistaken identity with their Father Frost, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg.
Next up, teams will immediately discover the Road Block: Who likes giving more than receiving?
For this Road Block, teams will get to be Ded Moroz for a day! Using the 10 letters they chose at the post office, teams must search through hundreds of wrapped presents for those belonging to the 10 children who wrote to Ded Moroz. Teams will then load the presents and the statue replica of Ded Moroz onto a troika to receive the next clue.
That clue tells teams they must now pull the troika through the forest and find the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race!
The first team to check in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check in here… WILL NOT be eliminated! It will be a Merry Christmas indeed for the last place team. That is, until the next Leg when they have to face one of these Non-Elimination penalties:
“Director’s” Commentary
Merry Christmas!
So this was another Leg I had saved up in the TARPHDME bank to pull whenever it fit a route. I’ve been wanting to use it for a while, but I wasn’t able to find a good route for it in the recent seasons. Now having finished this route a while back, I never planned on “airing” this episode a few days before Christmas. So this Leg was actually placed later in the original route. But right after the premiere, I realized I could “air” this episode at the perfect time, so I shuffled the entire route around (including making last week a “2-hour episode” lol) just so this could be a Christmas special. Lol
Anyway! I don’t even remember where I first read about Ded Moroz and Veliky Ustyug. I think it might have been in one of those travel lists of interesting, beautiful places to visit. But I thought this would be a great location to visit and incorporate the Ded Moroz character and Christmas into tasks. So this Leg definitely centers around that.
But logistics in getting to Veliky Ustyug aren’t the easiest. What we have here is as easy as I could make it, based on my Google scouting trip.
The first half of the Leg takes place in Moscow, which obviously deserves a full Leg on its own. The Detour is another one that I had on reserve for what would have been a Moscow Leg, but I decided to just slap it on here. I also decided to force teams onto the metro after TAR China 3’s Moscow visit. Aside from the stations looking amazing and so intricate (beautiful in 4K UHD, but no drones lol), we hope teams get lost in the subway of course lol More fun for TV!
The Detour itself is straightforward. Learning and performing dances have become really worn out on TAR in general, so adding a twist to it should freshen up such a task. Interacting with locals is always a good thing. And needing to get teams to participate in the early morning hours? That should be insanely fun. Lol
The other side of the Detour is a little less fresh and maybe more tedious, but teams control their own destiny there, so to speak.
After the long train ride (which should be a wonderful 4K UHD drone opportunity!), we start with teams needing to drive themselves around (in snow hopefully!).
The letters of course will play into the Road Block which I think is a lot of fun. It mixes a TAR task that’s been done in one form or another with Christmas and, I’d like to assume, helping give little children a little present for the holidays.
The 150 (or more!) Ded Morozes is another recycled-ish TAR task. And the statue replica is just another task to keep teams in this Christmas mood and to connect with the Road Block.
Dragging the troika through the snow (hopefully) should be a great finish to the already long and exhausting Leg!
And we can’t have this Christmas-themed episode end in an elimination. Lol Plus the logistics and all that really dictate that this should be a Non-Elimination.
Overall, this should be a fun and challenging Leg!
Merry Christmas!