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Phil arches his eyebrow, raises his arm high and with an emphatic "GO!" this season has officially started.

The teams sprint to their cars and make the all-important phone call for their first clue and destination. Where are they headed? Iquique, Chile. Once again, there are a limited number of seats on the first flight, so depending upon how this shakes out, I could be really, really wrong before the teams have left U.S. soil.

The commute/dash to the airport results in Tim & Marie calling each other “shrill” and “dumb” respectively already. This is getting old in record time. Speaking of a Tim on this Race, poor Oklahomans Tim & Danny are lost in LA and can't even overcome the language barrier while trying to get directions from an elderly lady. It's going to be a difficult go-round for these guys. The saving grace will likely be that they won't suffer for long.

While they languish early in the Race, Leo & Jamal have the first seats on the first flight to arrive in Chile. They will be traveling with Houston Texans Chester & Ephraim, exes Tim & Marie, ice girls Ally & Ashley, Team Bingo Rowan & Shane, MLB wives Nicky & Kim and ER docs Travis & Nicole.

That puts the following teams immediately trailing them by two and a half hours: Team Beardo Brandon & Adam, dating New Englanders Jason & Amy, daddy/daughter duo Hoskote & Naina and the aforementioned fish-out-of-water Tim & Danny. At least as far as Brandon & Adam are concerned, they don't assess their plight as too perilous, "It sucks but there's a lot of other people on the second flight. We just gotta be better than at least one of them." Aim low, fellows, aim low.

A little bit of mingling is shown at the airport but it pretty innocuous, except Leo & Jamal and Ally & Ashley seem to be laying the groundwork for an alliance. Leo acknowledges they may be just doing so to angle for the second Express Pass in the event the Afghanimals get it. I suspect the girls are not that forward-thinking.

The first flight has departed and teams will take a taxi to Alto Hospicio when they land. They will then search for the Zona de Parapentes and a fellow named Javier. It looks like they are kicking off the season again with a skydiving challenge. So far this season is mirroring last season a bit too closely for my taste. C'mon, producers, mix it up.

Okay, so they mix it up slightly. It's not skydiving but rather paragliding. The Roadblock asks, "Who's good at follow the leader?" One teammate will follow the other to Gray Beach where they will have paraglided to with a jumpmaster. The first team to arrive at this Roadblock is Travis & Nicole. Nicole will be following and Travis is taking flight.

Our footballers get a bit twisted in the Roadblock because Ephraim wanted to do the paragliding but since he said he was accepting the Roadblock, he gets to follow. Chester doesn't seem thrilled with this mix-up and strapping his 6'4" frame into a paragliding harness. But both Travis and Chester are just soaking in the view once they are airborne because honestly, what else are you going to do.

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