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Welcome to Leg 9 of The Amazing Race, now a little less Country. Let me be blunt about this leg � I hate, HATE the "To Be Continued" episodes of The Amazing Race. This is a competition � eliminate someone! These "To Be Continued" legs are just filler, a way to stretch the season . So little of consequence ever happens, and this continuation episode is no exception. In a nutshell, this is what happened: The teams leave Madagascar, take the same planes to Finland, do some messy, muddy detour tasks, do a roadblock task in a mine and all "finish" at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. The teams are even in the basic order they left Madagascar (with Tyler and James jumping over Dustin and Kandice by a little bit of time). Ho hum.

As nothing really happened, nothing's going to happen in this recap either. Instead here are the Top 10 Annoying Things That Happened in Leg 9 of The Amazing Race...

10. The Chos and the Lyns mourning over the departure of Mary and David. Godwin and Erwin wear Team Kentucky's "Friends in Low Places" T-shirts. Karlyn wears David's UK hat. They speak of them reverentially in the past tense, stating they are running the race in their memory and feeling them racing with them. Guys, they were eliminated, not killed. (And considering the gifts they were showered with this past week by Rosie O'Donnell, they're doing just fine, thank you very much).

9. The odd edits of Helsinki. It's a beautiful city, but you wouldn't know it from the little the producers and editors showed the viewers. Mud fields, mines, stadiums. Not exactly inspiring sites.

8. The beauty queens' ever increasing dumb blondeness. Helinski??? Wooden shoes being worn in Finland??? Whaaa?????

7. The Chos' continued aid to Karlyn and Lyn. There are too few racers left to be helping your competition in the way the Chos are helping the Lyns. The Lyns probably would not have made the flight out of Madagascar if not for the Chos' information as they were running into the airport. This would have put them significantly behind. At the mining task, it seemed clear that the Chos slowed up boarding the tram out of the mine so that Karlyn could catch up. At that point, either the Chos, the Lyns or Kimberly and Rob are going to come in last (had this not been a "TBC" leg that is). Aid of that kind is just detrimental to your own standing. Plus, it's clear that the Lyns would not extend the same courtesy to the Chos. Just race, boys...okay?

6. Lyn and Karlyn's criticism of things coming easier for the beauty queens because of their looks. Perhaps they have a point, but Lyn's comment that they get cabs first because they have their boobs hanging out just smacks of sour grapes. Perhaps the beauty queens get cabs first because they run out of airports faster than you.

5. The emotional e-mail messages from home. This isn't Survivor. Completely unnecessary and way too manipulative. Speaking of which...

4. The AOL product placement at the Finnish caf�. The constant reference to AOL by Phil and the camera shots of the AOL logos were bad enough. The kicker was the obviously cobbled together "American Online thank you very much" from one of the beauty queens. That statement actually came out of their mouths.

3. The beauty queens' continued use of the word "sistahs" to refer to Karlyn and Lyn. It is definitely being used as a pejorative and is just offensive.

2. Karlyn and Lyn cutting of the queue outside the train station. It's one thing to jump a line that is just made up of race competitors (which I wouldn't necessarily approve of). But doing this to individuals with no connection with the Race is rude. There should be some time penalty for this type of behavior. More importantly, you know if the beauty queens had done this, the Lyns would never shut up about it.

And the Number One Most Annoying Moment in Leg 9 of The Amazing Race is....

1. The "To Be Continued" scene card at the end of the episode.

Just to end this on a more positive note, there were a few good moments: James and Tyler's Ambiguously Gay Duo moment as they performed the "carry" part of the mud obstacle course; Rob commenting that he didn't think he'd be able to carry Kimberly so easily and her quick retort of "Do you think I'm fat?"; the scene on the train where the beauty queens confess their dependence on James' beauty products; and the karmic payback for the Chos, who rightly waited on the taxi queue and were rewarded by finding a local to give them directions who actually worked at the mine where they were heading. Here's hoping next week's episode is heavier on Nordic beauty, better behavior and most especially drama.