by Vin Convertito

 

The Amazing Race is down to seven teams and after last night, there will be six! But before a team heads home, Louie and Michael will once again have the honor of beginning this week's race. They will travel 37 miles away towards Reims, France where they will search the city for the only outdoor statue of Joan of Arc. According to Jordan, "that's the guy with all of the animals." At least last-place Jeff knew what his team was to be looking for!

 

Steve and Allie had no trouble finding the statue, but they literally ran into trouble on their way to the roadblock; Steve did some front-end damage to their car, but was able to hold things together with duct tape. Yes, duct tape has once again saved the day and Steve wasted no time giving his wife kudos for advising him to bring it along!

 

The roadblock will send one team member rappelling down a 100ft hole to Leclerc Briant's famous wine cellar. Once inside the wine cave, a marked bottle of champagne amid the thousands will have to be located and brought upstairs. The next clue, which is actually inside the bottle, requires the traditional use of saber sword to "open" the bottle. Dan and Jordan are first to slice their way through this chore followed by Louie and Michael and then Jet and Cord.

 

Teams will race towards Taittinger's La Marquetterie for their detour where they will choose between Terra or Tower. Terra involves searching through 5 square kilometers (approx. 2 acres) of a vineyard looking for a bunch of very distinct red and yellow grapes. Tower challenges the team to build a 15-story high pyramid using 680 wine glasses that, once erected, will be able to handle having 60 pounds of champagne waterfall-poured into them. Most teams immediately opted for the grape hunt, even though they just wanted to drink some champagne already!

 

Because Louie and Michael described themselves as "bulls in a China shop," the Terra detour made sense for them. Carol and Brandy and Steve and Allie also decided to scour the sprawling vineyard for the bunch of grapes; a challenge that involved as much luck as it did patience. Here Jet and Cord made up for lost time as they quickly found their bunch and headed for the pit stop; L'orrca, the administrative building in Champagne, France.

 

Dan and Jordan were the first team to go for the Tower challenge and it proved successful for them. But the same cannot be said for Brent and Caite who gave up on Terra when the bickering became too much and switched to Tower only to fail during their pour. The tension continued to mount for the couple as they headed back to vineyard searching in the dusk! Arriving last were Jeff and Jordan who took on the Tower, failed, and hit the fields with great speed and optimism.

 

But in the end, Louie and Michael took home first place, again. Carol and Brandy place second as Steve and Allie take an impressive third. The cowboys steal fourth with Dan and Jordan in fifth, but at this stage on the game, these two teams are in the bottom half. Lucky sixth went to Brent and Caite who seem to be skating on thin ice in terms of both the race and the strength of their relationship.

 

Equipped with flashlights were Jeff and Jordan who never gave up and finally found the grapes they were looking for. Despite being eliminated for finishing last, the couple had much to say about the Race; "I have a million reasons to be upset right now," said Jeff, "but I'm not." It seems that the two really enjoyed the 24/7 time spent together and even more so the chance to travel. Jeff and Jordan consider themselves to be winners as the whole experience turned out to be a grand prize!

 

 

Tune in to The Amazing Race next Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

 

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