| The Amazing Race: The Great Cheese Roll |
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Tweet me!| Monday, 16 February 2009 02:27 | |||
 The Amazing RaceThe Great Cheese Roll The 14th edition of CBS’ The Amazing Race kicks off tonight with US Marine Corps helicopters transporting the teams to the starting line at the Joint Forces Training Center in Los Alamitos, California. Host Phil Keoghan shares with us that it is 7 AM local time and it is the dawn of a new adventure. The teams gather on the tarmac where Phil explains that 8 of the legs will be elimination points so they want to never be last to arrive at the pit stop. Phil tells them that their first clue is waiting on top of their luggage. The world is waiting, good luck, travel safe. GO! Teams read their clue and learn that they will be going to Switzerland via either Milan or Zurich. Once they’ve landed at either airport they will travel by train to Locarno, Switzerland. Tammy/ Victor, Christie/ Jodi, Jaime/ Cara, Mark/ Michael, Brad/ Victoria, and Margie/ Luke will be traveling to Zurich. The remaining teams are traveling to Milan. Kisha/ Jen explain that they received information that the train ride was much shorter from Milan than it was from Zurich. We see both planes arrive and watch the teams scurrying for the train stations. Preston/ Jennifer miss their train. They are clearly not working well together even here at the start of the race – this does not bode well for them. We are treated to some scenic snow scenes as the trains travel toward Locarno. Once the teams reach Lacarno they must race through the streets to find the Church of San Antonio where they will sign the register and receive a message from the priest. Christie and Jodi befriended their seatmate who knew who to reach Lacarno and the church faster. She agrees to let them follow her. They reach the church first where their message tells them that they will have a 7:15 AM departure the next morning. They are to follow the map with their message to the campsite where they will stay for the night. Tammy/ Victor arrive right after them. The teams are at the campsite preparing to bed down for the night. They are introducing themselves to everyone and sitting around a nice campfire. Linda is in tears as she tells Steve that it isn’t her fault she is so slow. She wants to stay in the race. She comes across as feeling like a victim – not as a member of a team that has their eye on the prize. In the morning teams receive an unidentified picture – Phil shares with us that it is the Verzasca Dam. Racers must find the dam and travel to it by taxi. Mark/ Mike are first to arrive and receive their clue. RoadBlock: One team member must complete a 700-foot bungee jump from the dam. It’s the second highest bungee jump in the world. Victor is the first to get suited up for the jump. He has a little trouble taking the leap. One countdown and tells him to just lean forward and go. He does and screams most of the way down. He receives their next clue to take the train to Interlaken and find Kleine Rugen Wiese to find their next clue. Mark does it for the brothers – he does a swan dive and clearly enjoys the free-fall. Luke, Mel, Steve, Victoria, Jodi, Kris, Jaime, Jen, and Preston complete the challenge. They were all invigorated by the experience – with the exception of Mark/ Michael, I doubt that any of them would have tried this. Several teams arrive at Kleine Ruen Wiese and they receive their next clue. Team members must each use an antique traditional cheese rack and transport 200 pounds of cheese from the top of a hill to the bottom.  OK, I’m bad, truly bad. I could not stop laughing as I watched all of the cheese racks breaking resulting in the wheels of cheese rolling down the steep hill. Everyone is having trouble controlling the weight on his or her back. I have to hand it to Mel who sits down and slides down the hill on his rear end. The locals standing at the bottom watching are roaring with laughter.Mel seems to have pulled a groin muscle. Margie/ Luke are the first to finish and they receive their clue to travel to the pit stop. Teams must take their taxi to the last postal bus stop in Stechelberg. Once there, they must listen for a group of yodelers who will direct them to the pit stop. Tammy/ Victor are right behind them in second place. The group of racers who finished the Road Block in the second half of the pack arrives at the cheese challenge. They are having an increasing amount of difficulty climbing the steep hill to reach the cheese. It is obviously autumn looking at the leaves on the ground. There seems to be just enough moisture that the trips made up and down the hill by the earlier teams has made the trek even more slick for the later teams. The teams are slipping with what appears to be more frequency although it could be a matter of editing.  Margie and Luke are first to arrive in Stechelberg – Victor and Tammy are right behind them. They hear the yodelers – but the sound is bouncing off of the hill faces so they have trouble determining the correct direction to head. Margie and Luke find them first. Phil signs that they are team number one. As the winners of this leg of the race, they receive a trip for two to Puerto Vallerta.1st Margie/ Luke 2nd Tammy/ Victor 3rd Mark/ Michael 4th Mel/ Mike 5th Amanda/ Kris 6th Brad/ Victoria 7th Jaime/ Cara 8th Kisha/ Jen 9th Steve/ Linda 10th Christie/ Jodi 11th Preston/ Jennifer  Preston and Jennifer are eliminated from the race. They feel that the experience strengthened their relationship and solidified their feeling that they will be spending their future together.Tonight’s episode was pretty entertaining and next week’s episode looks fun too. The episode had a slightly different feel to it than in previous seasons. There appeared to be more emphasis – at least in this episode - on including reactions from locals. It seemed in some of last season’s episodes, the producers tried this – most memorably when the frat boys were trying to learn how to march in a parade while in Russia. An element that was missing in this episode was the Detour – where teams have to choose between 2 tasks to complete. It will be interesting to see if that is on hiatus for this season or just this episode. Tuned in next week to The Amazing Race when teams travel to Germany. It looks as though there is a Road Block where a member of each team must travel down a mountain – they seem to have the option of running/ walking down the mountain or some means that is easier and requires gear (rappelling or hang gliding perhaps?). In any case the easier task is weather dependent and it appears that wind holds up those who want to take the easier way down. Mel continues to wait at the top of the mountain because he is unsure whether he can walk down the mountain with his pulled groin muscle. Linda goes down the mountain and gets lost. Footage is also shown of Margie and Luke in what looks like a beer garden under a big top – with trays of beer, a band, and tables of cakes that they throw at each other. This season is already shaping up to be pretty entertaining with likable teams – let’s see what’s in store for them next week!
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