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1. Globetrotters Flight Time & Big Easy (Season 15): Here is a team that shouldn’t have been eliminated and gone out in fourth place but thanks to a pair of foolish mistakes during one Roadblock (trusting a competitor and taking a four-hour penalty in a close leg) that was exactly their fate. The first time around, these guys worked very well together as you would expect from playing on a team for their day job, but they also had possibly the best attitudes of any team prior and since toward each other and their opponents, excluding Dan, who flaked on Easy at the aforementioned Roadblock. I think that if they approach the race the same way this time, they will cross the finish line first unless…

2. Cowboys Jet & Cord (Season 16) also replicate their strategy, which gave them a second place finish. Along with Flight & Easy, the cowboys were the definition of how to work together as a TEAM (crazy thought, huh?). Even when they were spared elimination, they forged ahead and became the first and only team to ever go from back of the pack to first place, even with having to perform the extra Speed Bump. Their biggest threat is that everyone probably views them as the biggest threat. U-Turns likely await them at some point on the race. I wouldn’t be surprised (or disappointed) if my picks for first and second place flip-flop because I think the Globetrotters and cowboys are my two favorite teams ever on the race.

3. Former NFL cheerleaders Jaime & Cara (Season 14): Every season (until the last one, thanks to Nat & Kat), there is a ton of talk about whether or not this would be the first time an all-female team was going to win. I remember thinking Jamie & Cara could have been that team. They strung together several strong showings after they got a few legs under their belt and if they can settle back into that groove, I can see them making it to the last leg.

4. Best friends Zev & Justin (Season 15): A team that is memorable for two reasons – Zev’s Asperger’s Syndrome and being eliminated for losing their passports. Their ninth place finish doesn’t do them justice as competitors. First, in only four legs, Zev showed that his diagnosis was not an obstacle at all and he actually adapted very well to traveling and new situations, which was a huge question mark for him. Second, it is easy to forget that while Justin misplacing the passports was the biggest mistake they could make, they were actually in first place comfortably when they tried to check in with Phil sans travel documents. I think they could and will show they are a better team that shouldn’t be defined by their one ginormous error.

5. Mother/son Margie & Luke (Season 14): Like the cowboys and Globetrotters, Luke and his mom also have a U-Turn-shaped target on their backs. Unlike the cowboys and Globetrotters, it is there not because of their competitive threat but simply because people don’t like them. Regardless of whether you think it was justified or not, hearing impaired Luke was painted as the villain of his season. This isn’t Survivor, so there isn’t a need to make people like you but there was so much ill will between them and another team, it could rear its head here. As long as they work together again with the stronger team of Jamie & Cara, they will again outplace their arch nemesis team of…

6. Sisters LaKisha & Jennifer (Season 14): They raced hard and were at odds with Luke often. I think that was part of their downfall. They focused too much on beating one team and lost sight of needing to beat all the teams. You may not like another team but don’t let that cloud your focus. I fear that the old feelings will boil to the top and they will be out-raced by Margie & Luke...again.

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