From Madagascar to Finland (E9)

Teams left last week's Pit Stop with tickets provided to them for a flight to Paris at 9:40pm. They had the choice of whether to use the tickets and then arrange additional flights from there or they could arrange their own flights from the beginning. The show only did this because of the limited number of flights leaving the country. After noticing a flight that was just getting ready to board/check in, the models found a flight that was leaving within an hour and a half for Johannesburg. They, along with the Beauty Queens, Rob & Kim and the Cho's, booked flights arriving in Helsinki at 10:20am via Frankfurt via Johannesburg leaving Madagascar at 5am. For some non-tension filled minutes, it seemed like Bama wouldn't be able to make the flight but, as I said "non-tension, so Bama made the plane with everyone else.

Once in Helsinki, or as the BQs call it "Hell-in-ski", teams took cabs to find the Kappeli cafe where they had to log into their AOL accounts to receive their next clues. Teams were treated to video messages from their loved ones. All teams were excited but Bama, who received messages from their children, were the only ones who cried. After seeing their messages, the cafe owner gave them their next clue. Teams then had to travel by train & taxi 125 miles & locate a local school, where they would have to search the grounds for their next clue.

On the train, Tyler flirted outrageously with the Beauty Queens while he put moisturizer on his face (can you see me rolling my eyes?). Once at their destination, teams had to line up to catch taxis outside the train station. The models & the Beauty Queens jumped in the first available ones while other teams were forced to wait in line, though they didn't. Rob & Kimberly talked their way to the front of the line while Bama just jumped the line even though a business man was persistent in his right to the cab up until the moment they basically shoved him out of the way. Poor Cho's had to wait in line for the next cab: "Being polite sucks sometimes." Oh well, they caught up with Rob & Kimberly at the school anyways because their cab took them to the wrong school first, dropping them behind Bama.

At the school, the teams followed a marked path to the next clue box (not much searching, really). Here they found this leg's Detour. In this Detour, teams had a choice between Swamp This and Swamp That. In Swamp This, the Beauty Queens & Bama had to cross country ski through a one mile course across a muddy field, including climbing a couple of fences. In Swamp That, the models, Rob & Kim and the Cho's had to run, crawl, climb, jump & carry each other through an obstacle course. The models made a slight error in judgement by changing their clothes before leaving the school effectively negating their lead over the Beauty Queens but they were still the only teams to make the 3:11pm train to their next destination - Turku.

Once there, the teams had to choose a Mercedes and drive 70 miles to Lohja and the Tytyrin Mines located there. After arriving behind the models & the Beauty Queens by one hour, the Bamas once again semi-screwed over the Cho's. They sped out of the parking lot at the train station with the directions that the Cho's had shared with them on the train. Once at the mines, teams had to locate the marked door to the tram. For some reason, this caused problems for two of the teams (Beauty Queens & Rob and Kim) causing them to fall behind the teams on the same train as them. Since there was only one tram, teams had to wait a few minutes for the teams before them to travel into the mines before they could descend from the surface.

In the mines, teams came up against a RoadBlock. In this RoadBlock, one team member had to ride a bike downhill into a mine, retrieve a limestone block from a marked pile and bring it & their bike back up the hill. Once there, they had to use the traditional tools provided to break open the block and get their next clue. After screaming all the way down the hill "I'm coming for ya!", Rob passed Karlyn on the way back up the hill. All teams were then on their way to the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki.

After locating another marked door, teams found a clue box directing them to the top of the tower. Once there, teams were then instructed to run down the side of the tower into the stadium before they could receive their next clue. Notice how I didn't say "rappel" down the building? That's because teams had to go down the side of the building face first! Tyler & James were the only team we saw complete the task and receive their next clue: Keep Racing!!

I think the Cho's are slowly catching on to the underhandedness of the Bama girls. They were only using them to get ahead and they're finally showing their true colors. Now, while I really don't like the Beauty Queens, Bama is quickly becoming numero uno on my "slap you silly" list. The models need start using their heads. I think they got too confident coming in first for a couple of legs at the beginning but now they're making really stupid mistakes. They need to get the Beauty Queens out of their heads and the race back in. Rob & Kimberly should just keep making mistakes because if this had been a regular Pit Stop, they would have been gone and I definitely wouldn't have been sorry to see that!