Buongiorno, ciao tutti and hello everyone. This was quite a good episode actually and if you read my post last week, you'd know that I'm currently packing as I have an early flight to Vienna tomorrow so I will keep this post a lot shorter than normal with less details, sorry about that. This was TAR USA's 11th visit to Italy - yes they are very fond of Italy and it was their third visit to Milan, having raced through Milan in S4 E1 and S29 E6. Having said that they only arrived through Milan airport, did one roadblock in the city before driving out of the city, though Jack & Chelsie were so fond of Milan they decided to embark on a little impromptu sightseeing tour of the city, but more on that later. I am very fond of Italy, I am fluent in Italian - in fact, it is my fifth language and one of the five languages I have installed on my iPhone. I have visited Italy at about once a year on average for the last 20 years and have many Italian clients, hence I am certainly the right person to guide you through this episode! Here are the average ranking statistics after E10 in Milan.
Average ranking after leg 10 in Milan
- Jas & Jag 1.9
- Joseph & Adam 4.5
- Izzy & Paige 4.8
- Kyland & Taylor 5.2
- Jack & Chelsie 5.9 (eliminated in Corbetta)
Last week, I picked both the winners and the eliminated team correctly. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Jas & Jag was going to win this leg in style but the previews last week only featured Adam struggling with heat exhaustion and Kyland & Taylor being put on a later flight to Milan. I thought, no that's just way too obvious and would tantamount to a spoiler. That's why I picked the weakest team Jack & Chelsie as the team to be eliminated and I hate to be harsh but they performed poorly in this leg. They had a 45 minute lead on Kyland & Taylor as their flight landed 45 minutes earlier than the second flight from Athens. However, that 45 minute buffer slowly wore thin as Jack struggled with the flower dress roadblock and then they got hopelessly lost driving in circles around Milan despite having directions. That gave Kyland & Taylor just enough leeway to creep up on them and eventually overtake them at the second roadblock in Vigevano. That was such a valiant effort by Kyland & Taylor and they have worked so hard to rightfully earn their spot in the semi-finals next week. I know they only finished in 4th place in this leg but that was with a 45 minute deficit being on the flight so they performed really well. If we were to analyze where things went wrong for Jack & Chelsie, they lost the most amount of time getting lost and whilst they weren't as brilliant as Jas & Jag on the tasks, they didn't perform too poorly either there. But this late in the game, it becomes very unforgiving as there are no weak teams left so you just can't afford to make any silly mistakes like getting lost. As for whether it was fair to put Kyland & Taylor on that later flight, that's another discussion as I know this was a very contentious issue that infuriated many of you on social media.
So was it fair to put only one team on a later flight?
This was ridiculous. I think it was hugely unfair to have Kyland & Taylor effectively start that leg in Milan 45 minutes behind everyone else - that was worse than Joseph & Adam's non-existent speed bump penalty in the previous leg in Athens. A 45 minute deficit is such a huge penalty and Kyland & Taylor haven't done anything to deserve such a penalty. The odds were completely stacked against them in this leg and so no, I really don't think that was fair at all. If Kyland & Taylor had been on the same flight with everyone else, then they would have secured at least third place in this leg.
Are we sad to see Jack & Chelsie go?
Sorry, not really, because I knew it was inevitable. They were lucky to have made it this far in this season actually. They can be proud of themselves having outlasted other much stronger teams like Tucker & Eric and Natalie & Stephanie.
Is the Rotonda della Besana in Milan?
Yes it is, though it is not in the very centre of Milan. It is in East Milan and I'm guessing part of the reason why they picked a location like that away from the very centre of Milan is that parking is a lot easier in the suburbs and central Milan can be extremely congested. After all, the flower dress task had really nothing to do with that location at all - this task could have been done anywhere and this was just a nice old building with plenty of parking spaces outside.
Adam was succumbing to the heat in Milan, can it get very hot in April in Milan?
Well, usually we would consider April springtime in Northern Italy and the temperatures are usually fairly mild. But once in a while you can get a warm day though that is somewhat unusual. This episode was shot back in early April 2025.
What is the duty of care by production to someone like Adam who was clearly unwell?
Rest assured that there is always a medical team on set even if you don't see them. Whether or not they chose to include footage of Adam being aided and accessed by the medics is often an editorial decision but if he had been seriously unwell, the medic would have made the call to pull him out of the task until he was deemed fit enough to continue racing. The production team would have subjected Adam to a thorough medical examination as part of the casting process to make sure that he is at least fit enough to do all the tasks that they will encounter this season. However, managing his blood sugar levels is something that Adam has to do himself and as we have seen in the last few episodes, sometimes he gets so focused on the race he loses focus and that's when the medics will have to step in to check on him. We have seen various racers succumb to heat exhaustion on TAR before and have had to drop out of the race as a result of it, thank goodness this was back in April so it couldn't have been that ridiculously hot. It was spring and not summer.
Was it fair for Adam to have been able to complete the task in the shade whilst the others worked in the hot sun?
Again, there's no simple answer to this. If another racer had seen Adam been afforded that privilege, they could have always asked for the same if they too were suffering in the heat and it probably would have been allowed. However, to do so would waste time moving everything and the other racers may have thought, I'm nearly done, I don't want to lose any time moving into the shade. Heat exhaustion is pretty brutal and I recommend watching this year's TAR Australia where some teams did succumb to heat exhaustion when they were racing through rather hot countries like Sri Lanka.
I liked the flower dress detour but not the second detour at the castle.
It was devilishly difficult. It came down to attention to details, the racer completing that detour had to count the right number of each type of flowers in the arrangement. Everyone struggled with this task perhaps with the sole exception of Kyland, who was calm and steady. I want to see more tasks where the level of difficulty is so high teams get stuck there and the teams do not leave in the same order they have arrived in. That was not the case with the second roadblock in Vigevano. Sure it was a colourful medieval Italian festival in a lovely castle but the teams did just leave in the order they arrived in - even if some racers did take more than one attempt to complete the jousting part of the roadblock, there was no major drama there and as fans, we want more drama! The top three teams were pretty much determined the order they had finished the difficult flower dress detour in Milan - it was then a question of which team would be eliminated.
How far is Vigevano from Milan?
Vigevano is a small town to the south-west of Milan. It is about 42 km (26.1 miles) and the drive would take anything from 55 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes depending on the time of the day as traffic can be very heavy in Milan. However, once you get on the correct road heading out of Milan towards Vigevano, it shouldn't be that difficult to find your way there.
How far is the pitstop from where the teams had to build Leonardo da Vinci's bridge?
It is 22.5 km (14 miles) away, that drive would take approximately 30 minutes. Note that only the flower dress detour was actually done in a location in Milan, the rest of the leg was run in the rural Italian countryside to the West of Milan.
Do people in Italy speak English?
Yes and no. In big cities and especially with younger people they will tend to speak English rather well but with older folks and particularly in the countryside, forget it. It doesn't mean that they are unfriendly or unhelpful - it's just that they don't speak English. A lot of this leg was actually run in the countryside so finding an English speaking local to help would be a challenge. Can I point out that Chelsie made a mistakes when she asked a local "do you speak English?" It would be an excuse for the local to just say no if they were shy about speaking English (on camera!) and walk away but if you just asked a question like, "I want to get to this place, can you help me with directions?" Then at least they might just do a Google maps search for you - you just need their phones and you don't need to test how good or bad their English is.
Izzy is getting a lot of hate on social media and it puzzles me.
Why do people single Izzy out? Because if it was a homophobic thing, then Paige would be targeted as well but she slips under the radar. Admittedly, I didn't watch Izzy on BB so perhaps it is something she did or said whilst on Big Brother?
Who will win the next leg, who will not make it to the finals?
I think it would be safe to assume that Jas & Jag would not just win the next leg in Paris but the entire season as well, now that the only team that could realistically challenge them (Tucker & Eric) have already been eliminated. Based on their performances in this leg, I hate to say this but I think Joseph & Adam will be the next to go because they didn't perform as well as Izzy & Paige and Kyland & Taylor in this leg. I know that statistically they are the second strongest team at this point, but I am going to have to base it on their performance on this leg rather than across the entire season.It is a moot point anyway as none of the teams left have any chance of challenging Jas & Jag in the finale. I note that none of them have even won a leg and the only other team that have rightfully won a leg was Tucker & Eric. I know Natalie & Stephanie "won" E3, but that was a very generous gift from Jas & Jag so no, that doesn't count as a real win.
Okay guys, so that's it from me. I'm sorry it was so rushed, but I now have to get back to packing Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment