I didn’t see a thread yet for this week’s Amazing Race so here we go.
The monks wearing the cowboy hats were hilarious.
As much as I dislike Team Brenchel, I think their decision to U turn Dave and Connor was absolutely correct. U turn a team that is right behind you, rather than a team that you don’t know where they are.
I was surprised that Dave and Connor were surprised. They kept saying, “They U-turned a 60 year-old man!” As long as Dave and Connor are in the race you have to treat them like any other team, and if that means a U-turn, then you do it.
I also couldn’t figure out why Dave and Connor thought they HAD to U turn someone. I guess it would have been tough to U turn the Cowboys when they’re standing right there, but why U turn the Afghanimals and then help them through their tasks? Why not just skip the U turn?
There’s nothing I love more than tasks where the locals laugh at you, and the donkey task certainly delivered on that. I feel bad for Big Easy’s donkey though.
But they had to be pretty certain they were still in first place. In which case it’s more strategic to U-turn a team way behind you, or a generally hapless team (like the blondes), so you can be certain that even if you get hung up on a task they’ll never catch up. And playing for first place in any leg except the last is just stupid.
Exactly and the fact that they were being so, so pouty about it the whole time that they didn’t even have time to mention the Achille’s heel shows how pissy they became about it. Coupled with the fact that they came close to slapping each other over who to do the roadblock and then wanting to quit the roadblock on top of that solidified Brenchel’s decision to U-Turn them. It’s not that it slowed them down hugely, it’s more that it unnerved them completely and made them completely irrational. Irrational to the point where they thought it was ok to be hypocritical and U-Turn another team and act like that was cool but when it happens to them, it’s not.
I hope there’s another U-turn leg now.
15 grand worth of stupid! 
Yeah hitting a team further back is the solid play but Brachel wanted first and Dave&Connor wanted to be all honourable. I have to say I was pretty turned off with all the “why uturn a 60 yr old man?” crap.
I was pretty Amazed that Brenchal started the race about 50 minutes before everyone else. They must’ve really rocked that last leg. Getting off the plane first and not screwing up really paid off for them.
StG
Eh, if you’re playing a game for life-changing money, modifying your strategy for a few also-ran prizes is a dumb play, IMHO. I do want to amend my previous statement though - you should only play for first in the final leg, or a leg where the reward is a game-affecting prize such as the express pass.
They were pretty sure they were still in first place. And U-Turning Dave and Connor was a decision that won them $15,000. Dave really needs to stop being all butthurt about it. “Wahhhh, how can they U-Turn a 60 year old man!?” Uh, if you want to be a part of this race, you get exactly the same playing field as everyone else. No one is supposed to go easy on you simply because you’re old. And then Dave whining like a child that he wouldn’t do the roadblock no way no how, when this was a non-athletic one that he could have done, now there’s just more chance he’ll have to do a physical one later on.
I’m with those who think it was dumb, dumb to U-turn the team right behind you unless you are near the back of the pack. You main objective until the final leg is to put as much distance as you can between you and the last place team, not the second place team.
In this case, it worked out for Brenchel, and they won $15,000. Which is pretty insignificant compared to $1,000,000.
All that said - yeah Dave/Connor got unnecessarily pissy about it. But kudos to them for being able to U-Turn a team and then have that team gush about how wonderful and amazing you are! That’s pretty impressive.
Sorry to see the GTs get eliminated because they are always fun and play with good humor, but they haven’t really raced well this season. They were clearly the weakest team remaining. It was funny to see Big Easy mount his donkey just by swinging his leg over it. Not so much fun for the donkey, though, I suppose.
Unfortunately, for the first time in 23 (24, including this one) seasons, I spoiled myself. Yes, I hang my head in shame.
Regardless, Dave & Conner suck. ‘But I’m 60’…and, still I WILL NOT consider doing the Roadblock. Douche.
Hate the Blondes. Pretty sure that they couldn’t find Italy unless someone held their hands.
Remain impressed with ‘Brenchel’. She is SO much better this time around.
Bye Globetrotters. Love ya, will miss your joie de vive but, you never really had a chance.
I still say they made a good decision with the U turn considering their position at or near the front of the pack. I see it as an opportunity to push a good team further back, not to eliminate a weak team. Globetrotters were already doomed, so I don’t see much point in U turning them. The Cowboys and Dave/Connor have both been looking pretty strong lately, so use the U turn to eliminate some competition. Brenda wanted to U turn the Cowboys, which would be OK except for the slim chance that the Cowboys might have leapfrogged ahead of them with the Express Pass. They knew Dave and Connor were not too far behind. Why not U turn them?
Love the Globetrotters getting on and off their donkeys like they were riding bikes! Sorry to see them go, it’s probably time. Not reading the clue thoroughly has hurt them more than once.
I really wanted to smack Dave. Whining about them U-Turning “an old man” is stupid. Like they would not have U-Turned whoever they could to get ahead. 60 is not that old, and they’ve been running a very good race. Certainly if the U-Turn had gotten them eliminated, Brenden and Rachel, as well as the blond girls would have had a better change at making top 3. At the very least it seems to have shaken Dave and Connor up quite a bit and now that I realied what a whiner Dave is, I’m ready for them to go.
I propose a rule that anyone who complains about being U-Turned as being unfair, or mean or whatever, should have a penalty. I don’t care if they gripe a bit about it in the general sense, “Damn getting U-Turned sucks!!!” sort of thing, but whining about how horrible the team is who did it to you when you know you would have done the same things needs a penalty.
We thought that the fast forward allowed teams to skip all remaining tasks and go to the finish. But the cowboys still had to do the calligraphy task. Or did they not use their fast forward?
They had an express pass, which is a completely different animal. They won the express pass by coming in first in the very first leg - it lets them skip any one task any time they want. You can keep an express pass for as long as you like - it’s not a leg specific thing like a Fast Forward. It expires on the 8th leg, so they had to use it last night.
A Fast Forward allows you to skip ahead to the Pit Stop. Express Pass allows you to skip one task. I made the same mistake and asked the same question last season. 
(There has not been a FF yet this season, right?)
BTW in last week’s thread we reached the conclusion that if the Cowboys used the express pass but got U-turned, the U-turn wouldn’t matter:
but last night, they certainly seemed to believe that if Dave & Connor had U-turned them, the U-Turn would apply to them. One of them flat out said “I can’t believe we were standing right there and they didn’t U-Turn us.” Interestingly, they had used the Express Pass on the build-a-donkey task, which means they would have had to do the ride-a-donkey task, which is essentially the definition of “in their wheelhouse.” So it’s probable they were thinking that all along - keep the riding as the backup task if they did get U-turned.
You know, there was enough of the old Brenchel coming out last night for me to start hating them again, and yet Dave & Conner managed to make Brenchel sympathetic despite Brendan’s condescension to his wife and his godbothering at the cathedral. “I’m a 60-year-old man!” The blondes weren’t helping, either. “You guys are so NICE! We adore you! Why would anyone u-turn you?!”
To quote one of my recent favorite television ads, “That’s not how it works! That’s not how ANY of this works!”
Actually, now that I think about it, the Cowboys used the pass stupidly, assuming the riding task would have been easy for them. Their best play would have been - do the riding task; if they get U-turned, use the pass then to skip the building task, if they don’t get U-turned, use the pass to skip the Roadblock and cruise straight to the end. At the very least, they should have attempted one of the Detour tasks to see if they could bang it out in short order in case the Roadblock task turned out to be a problem.
I assume when Dave plays Sorry! he refuses to land on the same space as another player, or when Dave plays Crazy-8s, he never piles 2s onto 2s.
He’s just so honourable. I mean, the only reason he U-turned another team was because he had no choice.
What a dick.