S26: Aly & Steve

[Donny Ketchum]

Hi.  We're from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[blackwing]

Well, she is.  Many of the Olympic speed skaters seem to train in Wisconsin.  He's from Boston.

 

I like these two, even if they got practically zero screen time.  They seem to have a good attitude.  I think we only saw one of their dance attempts, not sure how many tries it took.  

[Donny Ketchum]

Gotta give some respect to Olympians.  I liked that they were genuinely happy for all of the teams who got out of that Syncing Steps Detour before they did.  And they kept their cool despite falling a bit behind there.  I think they'll last a good while since their relationship seems solid.

[Donny Ketchum]

Good job by Aly at the Roadblock, and great job by both of them at the Chair Detour.  The only team to clear it in only one try.  Pretty solid, quiet, staying-the-course leg from them.

[Donny Ketchum]

A shame this team's thread is getting so ignored.

 

Their only real mistake this week was taking too long at the Ski Detour and realizing that a switch was in order.  But other than that, I didn't see them mess up a whole lot.  They needed more than one try at the Tree Detour, but they seemed to blow right through the cabaret task.

 

I don't know how they finished behind Laura & Tyler, though, especially since they finished that task ahead of them.

 

Still, decent fifth place.

[Lingo]

There's something about Aly that is just so magnetic.  I totally get Steve's "I won gold" line because I'm jealous. They seem very competent and an obvious threat to win, especially out of the pre-existing couples.

[Way Wes Jr]

A shame this team's thread is getting so ignored.

 

To be fair, the editors aren't giving us much to go on.  They're a competent team that isn't winning legs or in a fight to avoid last; they aren't at each others throats or exhibiting ugly American behavior.  They usually get "props" in the episode threads - there just hasn't been a need to deep-delve in the racer threads yet.

 

(I do like the way you are updating each thread after each episode though.)

[Lamb18]

I didn't realize until the past episode that this team and hairdresser team were two separate teams.  I'm not sure I could figure out which team was which by looking at them without the hashtag captions.

[Lingo]

Well I don't think Steve and Matt look anything alike: Steve is tall and model-like, with curly hair; Matt is relatively short, with short hair and huge arms.  I admit that Aly and Ashley's faces look similar at first glance, but look at their chests and you can immediately see the difference.  Plus the hairdressers have that adorable accent and scramble around madly, while the Olympians are quietly competent.

 

These two are my favorite team remaining, mostly just because I find Aly so charming.  I'm afraid they're going to get u-turned because on paper they look like the perfect team.

[Donny Ketchum]

I wish these two had more airtime.  They seemed to do all right with the Water Detour, and Steve did well with the Roadblock.  Seems like they missed out on first place due to finding locals who didn't know shit about the location of the Pit Stop.

 

Still, third is pretty good.

[Chyna]

Plus the hairdressers have that adorable accent and scramble around madly, while the Olympians are quietly competent.

 

 

Which is exactly why the Olympians don't get as much air time.

[Lingo]

It may also be a side-effect of their strategy.  In the clips I've seen, they've mentioned more than once that they aren't thinking about winning legs; I think they are intentionally aiming for middle-of-the-pack finishes so that their competitors don't start thinking about u-turning them.  And on this show, most of the airtime goes to the teams in the front and the teams in the back.

[7-Zark-7]

I'm half convinced the producers slipped them in the third episode just to see if we'd notice. 

Edited March 23, 2015 by 7-Zark-7

[Donny Ketchum]

A clear-cut, well-deserved, highly decisive win!  They just hit all the right marks!  They navigated perfectly (helped by the GPS, but still . . .), did all of their tasks perfectly, Aly took failing the Roadblock with dignity, and they won cars as their prize!  Great job!

 

I really love these two and think that their win was a long time coming!

[kaygeeret]

Being a "hometown" girl I am behind them all the way.

 

Go team Olympians!

[hendersonrocks]

Big fan. Huge. They're competent, cute, and kind. My kind of team.

[Donny Ketchum]

They fell out of first on this leg, but they still did a great job.  Steve knocked the Roadblock out of the park, and despite some bad navigation en route to the Detour, they dominated the Detour.

 

Better navigation could've netted them another win, but second place isn't bad, either.  Good for them!

[scrb]

Don't understand why they were u turned as if they're a threat.

Maybe they'd outrun other teams but their mental game wasn't there.

[Camera One]

They were a physical threat.  Steve was pretty much the biggest and strongest man left, and Aly was athletic and quick.  As a team, they were cohesive and didn't argue much (until this leg).  They were mentally alert.   I didn't notice any of their weaknesses until this latest leg (and we got the internal view), so I can see why the other teams wouldn't.  

Edited April 20, 2015 by Camera One

[7-Zark-7]

I knew when they came in last in the non elimanition leg as Aly said that the experience brought out the competitor in her so the other teams should watch out, that they were toast.

[jhlipton]

The crappy detour insured that the 6th place team would beat the 4th and 5th.  That, I think, was the beginning of the end.

[Chyna]

The TV Guide exit interview.

[hendersonrocks]

Great interview. Reinforces my appreciation for them & hope that they get a second crack at it someday.

[Camera One]

That was a good read.  They were really honest on the interview.  

[Jersey Guy 87]

They own up to their own mistakes and blame themselves for being eliminated.  I liked their quiet competence (at least until the double episode).