by Gina Scarpa

 

We last left the teams of The Amazing Race in Belgium, where Amani and Marcus checked in first at the pit stop but found out that they were still racing. They don't even get a trip?!

 

Teams head to the Ford Proving Ground for a Road Block where one team member has to pass three different road tests (hitting 115mph, passing a slalom test, and then successfully completing a donut). Thank goodness this is a Road Block because my white knuckle, backseat driving would never be able to handle that! Amani and Marcus get lost on the way, which opens the door for Ernie and Cindy to jump to the front of the pack.

 

While Amani and Marcus drive around Belgium, Ernie struggles with the car challenge - in fact, he estimates that he did it 15 times! Jeremy, on the other hand, is a natural (and has a way better copilot from Ford) and narrowly misses passing Ernie.

 

Next, teams travel to the city of Gent (which Andy and Tommy pronounce like "gent"-leman) and find a Detour. The choices are Water or Waffles. In Water, teams must build a raft and search for two pieces of a clue - no thank you. In Waffles, teams have to assemble a waffle stand and create 18 perfect waffles. YUM!

 

Turns out making waffles is a lot harder than it sounds. Amani and Marcus take one look at Jeremy and Sandy, who are a hot mess in the stand, and take off to do Water. Ernie and Cindy's waffles aren't faring much better... I think they should leave that to the Belgians.

 

Ernie and Cindy finally get the hang of it, finish first, and take off for De Muur Van Geraardsbergen. Andy and Tommy build a raft like they do this every day in their lives, grab the two pieces of the clue, and are now in second.

 

Teams release pigeons and follow them to a specific address where they'll get their next clue. Is anyone else having flashes of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds?!  Finding this address proves to be quite difficult as just about every team gets lost.  When they finally arrive, a very tiny clue from the pigeons leads teams to the Atonium, a monument in the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal - and very impressive to look at.

 

Andy and Tommy arrive first (again) and each of them wins a brand new, CUSTOMIZED Ford Mustang - that's gotta be one of the best pit stop prizes in the history of the show right there.  Teams finish in the following order: Jeremy and Sandy, Ernie and Cindy, and Amani and Marcus.  Bill and Cathi, who have ran one heck of a race, couldn't recover from arriving last at the pit stop last time and were eliminated at the mat.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary-eyed...

 

 

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

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