Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) is joined by Rob’s Amazing Race partner Jessica Liese (@HaymakerHattie) and Amazing Race 22 winner Bates Battaglia (@BatesBattaglia) to discuss episode 8 of the Amazing Race 23 “One Hot Camel” which took teams across the United Arab Emirates.
Bates is envious of the fact that there are other teams racing while he is sitting on the couch watching the race. Anthony is back to playing hockey. Bates and Anthony have not broken up as friends because they are family.
Hockey Rules the Race
Bates likes the Ice Queens although he doesn’t believe they worked in the NHL when he played. He does not like the Afganimals or Tim and Marie. Bates thinks the Afganimals are kind of goofs, but the main drawback for him about them is the fact that he believes they race dirty. Jessica echoes the resentment towards the Afganimals. She would accept a free drink from them though because it’s free alcohol. Bates admits that he had race girlfriends in Caroline and Jen, but wouldn’t go as far as to call them his race wives. Jessica thinks that relationship worked because they helped each other out with their strengths. Bates thinks they helped him and Anthony more then they helped Caroline and Jen.
Bates does appreciate that Hockey is the superior sport on the Amazing Race this season with the Ice Queens outlasting the Baseball Bunnies and NFL players. He thinks that the NHL has the right combination of strength, agility and just a little bit of brains to succeed on the race. He did not want the Baseball Bunnies to go home though because there were other teams that Bates would have liked to see go home first.
Good Guys and Bye Rides
Bates would not have gone out of his way to sabotage the Afganimals because they lied about using the U-Turn on the beards if he was in first. He says that they played the good guy game, and using it would not have played into it. Bates compares the Afganimals to John from his season because he is underhanded and very corny much like the Afganimals. He had no idea about John and Jessica’s elimination, but he wasn’t sad to see them go. He still chats with Max and Katie, the Country girls as well as the Roller Derby moms. When asked about Joey and Megan, Bates didn’t have a problem with them and disliked John and Jessica more. He would subscribe to Joey’s channel, but he isn’t good with computers. Rob mentioned that Joey made a video about having his car towed, and the guy who towed him made a response.
Joey’s video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybb8o5oqzDk
The response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHZRot-EK8Y
Ex-Press Pass and Bunnies are Last
Bates would have tried to hang on to the Express Pass longer then Travis and Nicole did, but believes they made a decent decision. He believes that there will be more drama between Travis and Nicole and the Afganimals because of the U-turn, because no one likes being u-turned.
Jessica believes that the leg was very poorly designed and the Baseball Bunnies elimination was all but certain. Bates gives them credit for toughing it out, but points out that the all-girl teams tend to have a lot more tears than any other team.
Bates believes that Travis and Nicole are the favorites to win the Race. Jessica thinks that the only two threats are Jason and Amy along with Nicole and Travis. Bates thinks the Afganimals are running out of luck. Both Bates and Jessica think Tim and Marie aren’t going to last. Bates would have given the thought about running the race with his ex a shot, but never would have actually done it. He thinks that running the race with an ex is making an extremely hard thing even harder.
Never Trust an Animal
Bates would not have done the camel task, because he hates tasks that leave the results in the hand of an animal. Jessica thinks that the producers would push teams through tasks who are in the back of the pack. Bates never noticed this because everything blended together on the race. He did call the monkey task on his season one of the toughest tasks on the race and he and Anthony legitimately felt they were going home
Bates also missed Phil’s shirt, and said that he would have never won the race if he paid attention to Phil’s shirt. Jessica called it “Something Frasier would wear to a Knicks game”. Rob called it very “showy” for Phil.
According to Bates, the mistake that Tim and Marie made of missing the Clue Box is a very common mistake because they are moving so fast on the race.
Question Time!
Bates believes that he and Anthony would compete really well against the NFL players because he won and they were eliminated early. He was a fan of the Globetrotters though, although he feels they could still beat them.
He would run the race with Caroline and Jen over the Ice Queens although they are both involved in Hockey because they made a connection with the Country Girls. He has no idea when they are releasing music, but he would be available to di a music video with them if they choose to write a song about them Taylor Swift Style.
Bates thinks Max and Katie are better villains then Tim and Marie then they are good people outside of the race. He cannot stand Marie.
According to Bates, the most important trait for the race to be able to get along with your partner. “It’s all about chemistry” Although it doesn’t hurt, playing a team sport doesn’t directly benefit you on the race according to Bates.
If he and Anthony were on this race, they would have struggled with the Dancing and Singing tasks, although Anthony is really good at dancing. According to Bates though, Anthony would have worn the dress in the dancing task.
Bates would have done the race again in a second. Although there is no talk of an All-Winners season according to Bates, he thinks that would have been awesome.
On his season, Bates thinks Mona and Beth and Max and Katie both raced really well and he could see either one of them doing good in another race.
Bates believes the producers give the teams $1 just to say they gave them something. Rob suggested ordering from McDonald’s dollar menu, and Bates says there weren’t too many of those where they went.
He thinks it would be weird if there was a swap partner’s edition. Jessica thinks it would be over complicated if that were to happen.
When asked if he would spend a month on an island with either John and Jessica or the Afganimals, he said very begrudingly that he would spend it with John and Jessica.
Bates believes that the hardest task on the Amazing Race this season was the racecar task because of the memorization involved. Personally though he would have struggled with the Dancing or the singing tasks.
Even if Dave had not gotten injured, Bates believes that he and Anthony would have still beaten them. He points out that Dave had injured it trying to beat him and Anthony to the mat
Bates could definitely see John cheating and looking at puzzles, but thinks that would be racing dirty. He calls John a Rat and Jessica calls him a mis-understood mastermind in his own head. Bates also says he will be the stripper at Jessica’s bachelorette party.
If you are in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, Bates encourages you to check out his bar Lucky B’s which he calls the classiest dive bar in Raleigh. Be sure to tune in to Robs other podcasts this week as we continue Winners Week. As usual, Rob will be joined by Stephen Fishbach for Survivor Know-It-Alls on Wednesday night. On Thursday, Rob will be joined by Survivor winner Richard Hatch along with the latest contestant eliminated from Redemption Island which there is a large chance that will be a former winner with Tina and Aras competing.
Follow Bates on Twitter at @BatesBattaglia. He is verified, but has no idea what that means. Be sure to also follow Rob @RobCesternino and Jessica @HaymakerHattie.
Special Thanks to Michael Shaheen for another Amazing Amazing Race Recap
