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On behalf of America, I offer my apologies to the Chilean shoeshine man who got hijacked by Rowan last week during the Roadblock. Take heart, gentle sir. The crazy man with a penchant for yelling "Bingo!" and harshly (yet, accurately) calling another person "diablo" has been sent home. Chile’s honest street vendor world is once again safe.

On to the rankings, which may be surprising since one team in particular is low in the rankings despite finishing near the top.

1. Jason & Amy: New England dating couple. A middle-of-the-pack finish on the last leg doesn’t usually generate a bump to the top of the rankings, but there is something about this couple that gives me confidence in their long-term race prospects. They have avoided any major errors over the last two legs and have performed better than most on the tasks themselves yet not dominated a task, though Jason making short work of the rowing Roadblock is close. The most impressive thing about these daters to me is that they have been working perfectly as a team. They encourage each other, work through tasks as a team and not as opponents and even last week, Jason anticipated that Amy may have difficulty on the Mining Detour. When she said she could do it, he didn’t dig his feet in and demand they switch. They headed out to it with his endorsement. And when they saw the physicality of the task, Jason just pointed it out and again suggested they try Brining. There was no bossiness or saying, “I told you that one would be too hard.” That’s why I put them at the top.

2. Chester & Ephraim: Friends and former Houston Texans teammates. It took the second leg to really allow these guys to show their stuff (metaphorically speaking). The pre-game intros hinted that the guys would be fun to watch as they would likely be good-natured in their inter-team grief-giving but the first leg highlighted no stellar Race skills. The second leg showed us a couple of things, though. First, these guys showed they can not only tear up the physical challenge (see Mining Detour) but Chester was one of the only ones we saw not have to redo their Roadblock shoeshine cart. Attention to detail and strength should carry them to the end. Also, they guys kept it light and fun with one another. Given how quickly another supposedly fun-loving team (cough...Afghanimals...cough) deteriorated when a mess up occurred, NFL's finest should be proud. Finally, Ephraim got into an argument with Ex-Marie and essentially spoke on behalf of the entire audience. So thank you for that.

3. Travis & Nicole: Married ER doctors. Sorry, Nicole, but for your birthday, I am taking away your number one ranking. While I still have faith that this team will continue to do well for similar reasons to why I put Jason & Amy at the top, the physical nature of the some upcoming tasks will likely be more difficult than bike riding. Therefore, if Nicole struggled that much with biking, I fear that a wrongly selected Roadblock task for her could be quite damaging to their Race chances. I just don't think that the potential weakness is enough to doom them altogether, and should just be a bump along the way.

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