The Amazing Race 15 Weekly Blog: Knowing when to fold them.

6 teams are left in The Amazing Race and the standings changed really quick in the broadcast.

Meghan & Cheyne had an over 2 hour lead departing from the pit-stop at 1:40, the second team leaving after 3:30 and the last team leaving at 4:30pm. But the legenday “Great Amazing Race Team Equalizer” eliminated Meghan & Cheyne’s wide lead they held for two full legs of the race. That “Equalizer” was a flight schedule that had teams waiting until MIDNIGHT for the next available flight to their next destination. All teams sat together at the airport waiting for the fight.

Teams left Dubai to fly to Amsderdam where they drove themselves to a monument to get their first clue which told them to drive to another location for the “roadblock” task where a team member had to climb up the steep stairs of a bell tower while counting each of the bells. While traveling to this task, Brian & Ericka slipped to last place when Brian could not figure out how to engage the electroinic driving of their assigned Mercedes-Benz.. Then Ericka struggled to complete the “roadblock” task.

After completing the “roadblock” teams had to drive themselves to another town where they would find a windmill which would be the “detour” tasks where teams had to dress in local customary Dutch farmers outfits including walking in CLOGS. Yes, wooden clogs.

Anyway their choices were “Farmers Game” where teams had to strip down to their farmer underwear and swim across a lake then play “farmers golf”. Or “Farmer’s Dance” where teams had to find a local festival where they would have to perform a local dance custom and eat fish.

A few teams switched tasks when they either had difficulty getting started or in the case of one team, eating fish was not appealing so they decided to switch tasks. Maria & Tiffany switched tasks back and forth several times. That allowed Brian & Ericka to catch up and head to the pit-stop. However, Brian & Erika made a mistake that almost cost them the race.

Gay brothers Sam & Dan finished their “detour” very quickly and travelled by bicycle to the next pit-stop where they arrived first. And for being the first team they won a sand buggy.

The rest of the team arrivals were.

SECOND: Meghan & Cheyne

THIRD: “Flight Time & Big Easy”

FOURTH: Gary & Dan

FIFTH: Brian & Ericka’s mistake during the race was their failure to use bicycles during the “detour” part of the race. They were recovering emotionally from Ericka’s struggle during the “roadblock” and forgot the part of the detour clue that required using bicycles. So they borrowed bicycles from someone after completing the “detour” but were charged with a 30 minute time penalty for forgetting part of their clue and had to wait out their penalty before checking in at the pit-stop. If another team were to arrive during that 30 minutes, they would have been the next team to check in and Brian & Ericka would have been last and possibly eliminated.

But the professional poker player “gamblers“, Maria & Tiffany knew when to hold them and when to fold them. They knew when to walk away because they gave up running on The Amazing Race. They had switched “detour” tasks several times and found themselves tired and knowing they were in last place, they decided to give up and accept their elimination.

Its not often when a team simply gives up but Maria & Tiffany handed me a successful prediction for elimination on The Amazing Race and for exactly the reasons I cited for my predictions. When the tasks became more physically demanding, they could not compete. The last place team sailed through the demanding final task, a sign of physical and team strength. Maria & Tiffany had the team strength but the physical strength.

And of the remaining teams, my predictions for the next elimination and the possible contenders for the final three are narrowing down but are tough to determine. The previews for the next episode show an extremely difficult task with some teams breaking down including the current top two teams. Of course you really can’t determine the next elimination based on the previews. So I am going with the a prediction based on the weakest team long term. And that is the father and son team Gary & Matt. Although I would like for them to prove me wrong I think the youth and physical strength of the other teams will surpass the oldest and fattest racers left on the race. Again I am being honest here and not disliking Gary & Matt in any way. My prediction for next elimination regretfully is Gary & Matt.

For the final three I am currently expecting it to include Meghan & Cheyne, Sam & Dan and Flight Time & Big Easy. At this point in the season with only 5 teams I no longer select four possibilities for making the final three. We still have a few weeks to go. My predictions are subject to change next week depending on the performance of Brian & Ericka. I don’t include them in the final three only because of their current standing. They will have to catch up in order to be considerred for the final three.

I enjoyed this fast paced simple epidsode of The Amazing Race from a hotel room South of Atlanta. And I will enjoy the next episode in a week. I hope you’ll enjoy it with me.