by David McAlpine

On tonight's episode of The Amazing Race, the first leg began with Margie and Luke checking out of the pit stop in Switzerland, only to find out they’d be traveling a short distance to nearby Germany. Not a big change of scenery, but I figured it’d be chock full of names that would be very entertaining for Phil and the contestants to struggle saying.

Minutes later, all the teams are on their way to the airport, jockeying for a spot on the 7:10 flight to Munich. Of course, some of the teams have some semblance of reason and call ahead. And the teams that don’t…well, get lucky for the most part. Surprisingly, only two teams, Christie and Jodi (who are doing a really poor job of repping flight attendants – I thought they would be doing a much better job) and Mark and Michael end up on the 8:45 flight.

Flash to Munich, where teams have to take a tram up to the top of a mountain where their roadblock awaits. Each selected team member has to (surprise!) paraglide off the face of the mountain, 6,000 feet to the ground below. But wait, there’s a catch: if the wind isn’t blowing right, they can’t go. So they can wait at the top or take a 60-minute run down the mountain. Naturally, the wind isn’t blowing right when any of the teams get to the top, prompting everyone to run down the mountain except Mike, who can’t run because he pulled his groin last leg. Just to clarify, Mel and Mike got to the roadblock fourth, where they saw three other people suiting up to paraglide. In a harness. That goes in your groin. And yet Mike still decided to do it? I mean I’m all for doing all this adventure stuff while you still can, but really? And the situation only worsens when all the teams decide not to wait and just run it, leaving Mike stranded.

However, in true “Race” fashion, the windsock turns and Mike is cleared for takeoff just after the last two team members run down the path, putting Mel and Mike back in the middle of the pack. Meanwhile, Mark comes careening down the hill like an Olympic speedwalker and Linda gets lost, putting her and Steve in last.

Next up is the detour: Austrian Folly (throwing pies at your partner’s face until you find one with cherry filling) or Balancing Dolly (riding a Segway 2 miles through an obstacle course). Neither proves hard for any team, as the positions barely changed. And so they stayed as teams checked into the pit stop in Salzburg, Austria. Tammy and “I make all the decisions” Victor checked in first and won hybrid go-carts (and I was slightly jealous), Christie and Jodi barely scraped by again, and Linda and Steve made a tearful exit. I was genuinely sad to see them go because they’re one of the most genuine teams I’ve seen on the race in a long time, so they will be missed.

New episodes of The Amazing Race air Sunday nights at 8pm ET on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)