THE AMAZING RACE 16 EPISODE #5

FIGHT TO THE FINISH

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Get Ready, Get Set, GO!

The wishful, wounded and weary leave Hamburg, Germany by bus to an unknown city in "France".

The wishful detectives, Michael and Louie, the wounded, Joe and the weary, Jordan and Jeff, along with the other five remaining teams embarked on a trip to France. Upon arrival in France, they found their clue which directed them to Ste. Menehould, where they were to find the Boulangerie Defontaine, a bakery, where they were to buy a fresh baguette and received their next clue.

Detectives, Michael and Louie lead off and arrived first at the boulangerie. Upon receiving their baguette, they were left to wonder about the "clue" which they were to be given. In quick time, upon breaking open the baguette they found the clue which had been baked inside. They were directed to travel to Le Main de Massiges. This is an area coveted by Germans but fiercely defended by the French - a well known battle site. Being the first team to arrive they were surprised to find a DETOUR which gave a warning that there was a U-Turn involved in the course of the Detour.

THE DETOUR

The two challenges were: The Trenches or Underfire.

The Trenches required that the team, dressed as American Dough boys settle in a trench where they would be given a message, in Morse code, which they needed to translate.

Underfire required the costumed American Dough boys to belly-down in the mud, booby-trapped with barbed wire, and crawl 100 yards to a machine gun nest amid the battle raging. Once at the machine gun nest they needed to retrieve a written message from French soldiers and then crawl back to safety. Upon arriving back to the spot of safety they would be assisted in attaching the message to a homing pigeon that would deliver it to headquarters. The message would declare that the war was over. At the point that the homing pigeon was in flight, the teams would be given their clue to the next part of their journey. The clue instructed the team to walk south, down the road. With help of a compass, teams would walk south and find a Blind U-Turn.

The Blind U-Turn allows a team to remain anonymous while slowing another team down by forcing them to perform an additional task; that of performing whichever task they had not previously performed, forcing them back to their previous location. Michael and Louie, still in the lead, debated briefly as to which team they should choose. The decision was Joe and Heidi because of a statement Joe had made while they were on the bus from Germany to France. "No fear of the other teams".

Once the detectives posted the selected team, they received their next clue instructing them to march to the Church of Massiges. Upon arrival at the church, they were instructed to "pedal to victory". They were to dress in traditional attire, including a moustache, and peddle on antique bicycles through a challenging four mile route to their destination Pit Stop.

Victory was theirs. Maintaining the lead through the day, they were able to claim their second victory in a row. Their reward was a 55 inch HD television for each of them.

The Struggling Teams:

Brent and Caite checked in in the 6th place, only to be informed by Phil that they had misread their clue and never found the U-Turn clue, instead walked directly to the bicycles and peddled to the Pit Stop. They were made to go back to pick up the U-Turn Clue. Despite this delay for them, they were still the 6th team to check-in.

How did Jordan and Jeff make out? Well, it's as if there was a cloud over their heads. Upon arrival in France they got lost. They knew that in order to have any chance of winning that they needed to pass at least one team. They also knew that they had an additional challenge to perform as a result of avoiding elimination last week- the Speed Bump. After performing the Speed Bump task; that of reinforcing a portion of the battle field trenches using branches, they then completed the challenge , Underfire. Jordan had difficulty with crawling under the barbed wire and when they had to repeat the barbed wire crawl following receipt of the clue received at the machine gun nest there was clear evidence of frustration, as well as concern that they might not meet with the success they were working so hard to realize.

Now, for the fate of Joe and Heidi. Since they had performed "Underfire" they had to perform "The Trenches"... deciphering the Morse code message. Here is where their problems started. Try as they might, they were unsuccessful in deciphering the message correctly. While they continued to work on decoding the message the remaining teams completed their challenges and reached the Pit Stop. As it grew dark and they still had not checked-in so Phil went to them to inform them that they had been eliminated. (See Joe and Heidi Wang's picture above. They live in El Segundo, California.

The Finishing Order:

Louie and Michael

Steve and Allie

Jet and Cord

Don and Jordan

Carol and Brandy

Brent and Caite

Jordan and Jeff

Joe and Heidi

Which team will be eliminated week 6?

Which team will win the #1 spot week 6?

Want to give a guess as which team will win?