Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 1, Episode 3 – “Anderson Cooper is so hardcore!”

Episode 3 – Hoodoos and Hoodonts

Amazing Race Canada 3

The 3rd Leg begins and teams must fly to Calgary. They must head to Nicola Internet Cafe in downtown Vancouver to book tickets on Air Canada’s website.

Holly & Brett, Hal & Joanne, Jody & Cory and Kristen & Darren get on the 7am flight. Vanessa & Celina, Tim Sr. & Jr. and Jet & Dave book tickets on the 8am flight.

At the airport, Holly & Brett decide to hide all the Calgary maps at the store to keep the others buying one. Meanwhile, at the ticket counter, Vanessa & Celina mange to sneak their way onto the 7am flight.

Amazing Race Canada 3

Once in Calgary, teams will each hop into a Chevy Silverado and drive themselves to Outlaw, a statue commemorating the legendary Calgary rodeo bull where they will find their next clue.

Amazing Race Canada 3

On the flight to Calgary, Kristen & Darren decide to give their 2nd Express Pass to Vanessa & Celina instead of Holly & Brett who had finished 2nd in the first Leg like they promised.

Hal & Joanne get to the statue first and read their clue sending them to Ranchman’s Cookhouse for the next clue, the Road Block.


Who Wants to Get in Line?
In this Road Block, teams must dress up and learn a traditional country western line dance.

Amazing Race Canada 3

Joanne decides to do the Road Block with Jody, Holly and Darren right behind. But the dancing isn’t so easy and it allows the 2nd flight teams the Tims and Jet & Dave to catch up.

While everyone is struggling, Brett confronts Kristen about the Express Pass.

Joanne finally gets the next clue on her 3rd attempt and she and Hal are off. Teams must now drive themselves to the Hoodoos in Drumheller. They maintain their lead when they find the Detour.


In this Detour, teams will choose between two of Drumheller’s toughest professions.
In Lump by Lump, teams must locate the Atlas Coal Mine. After hopping on a train named Linda, teams must change into coalmining suits and grab their nametags before heading out to load a train car with coal. Once they’ve “trimmed” the car and placed their nametags in the correct spot, they’ll get the next clue.
In Bone by Bone, teams must head to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology where they must assemble a dinosaur model from memory based on a display in the museum.

Amazing Race Canada 3

Hal & Joanne choose Lump by Lump.

Back at the dancing, Darren,Vanessa and Dave all get the clue on their 3rd attempts. It takes Holly 8 attempts and Jody 7 attempts.

While Kristen & Darren finish the Detour, Vanessa & Celina get lost on the way to Drumheller allowing Jet & Dave to arrive at the clue before them. They both choose Lump by Lump.

Amazing Race Canada 3 Amazing Race Canada 3

Hal & Joanne stay in 1st place all the way to the Pit Stop at Horse Thief Canyon where they officially check-in first and win two round trip tickets to anywhere in the United States.

Holly & Brett decide to do Bone by Bone and Jody & Cory choose the coal while Tim Sr. finally finishes the Road Block after his 9th attempt.

Amazing Race Canada 3

At the coal, Jet & Dave take a moment before realizing their nametags are in the wrong spot while Vanessa & Celina struggle with the heavy lifting. Over in the museum, Holly & Brett are also struggling, especially Holly who is on the verge of a meltdown.

Amazing Race Canada 3

Jody & Cory catch up to Vanessa & Celina at the Detour, but the sisters finish before them. Just as the brothers leave, the Tims arrive.

At the Pit Stop, Kristen & Darren arrive at the Mat in 2nd with Jet & Dave finishing 3rd. Vanessa & Celina get lost once again. When they get back in the right direction, they catch up to Jody & Cory and decide to pass them.

It’s a footrace to the Mat and the sisters finish 4th with the brothers 5th.

Amazing Race Canada 3

Tim Sr. & Tim Jr. finish the Detour first, but they drive in the wrong direction allowing Holly & Brett to finish their Detour and step on the Mat in 6th. The Tims are in last place, but this is a non-elimination Leg.

Episode Thoughts
It was an okay episode. Well-placed non-elimination since it would suck to be eliminated only because you can’t dance.

The Road Block itself was okay and pretty standard TAR. (I’m looking forward to Pig or Jig 3.0 with a very similar task when TARUS goes to the Philippines next year 😉 )

The Detour was good. Definitely a physical vs. mental task, but the physical side of the Detour seemed to be the smart choice.

Canada looks beautiful though. Such a diverse landscape, I’m sure TARC has plenty of great places to visit this season.

So far so good for TAR Canada.

My Subjective Team Rankings (for Leg 3)


Hal & Joanne – A great Leg for them! They got themselves in front and stayed there even with a little struggle at the Road Block. They are definitely solidifying their place in the Race and could easily make it to the end.


Jet & Dave – An alright Leg for them. Their little missteps with finding the Road Block clue and the little detail at the Detour shouldn’t be too big of a worry for them moving forward, but they still have a lot to work on. I think they can still step it up. They managed to catch up and beat other teams despite being on a later flight.


Tim Sr. & Tim Jr. – Rough Leg for them. I think they have it in them to pull themselves out of the bottom. They’re very competitive, so they definitely won’t be sleeping on the job.


Jody & Cory – Maybe the dancing wasn’t the best task for Jody, but they’re still in the Race. It was an otherwise okay Leg for them, but I do wish they had fought with Vanessa & Celina more to stay ahead of them. What if they were in last place and didn’t know it?


Kristen & Darren – Okay Leg for them. Their big moment was handing the Express Pass to the sisters which was fine. They might have made an enemy, but it was a smart decision to not give their biggest competitors an advantage. If anything, they dissed the sisters by implying they were weak and even with the Express Pass, wouldn’t be able to beat them. We’ll see.


Vanessa & Celina – You can just see they are going to get eliminated sooner rather than later because of bad navigation. Twice in one Leg is not a good sign.


Brett & Holly – How quickly their attitudes change when they’re not in front. They’re still the aggressive super competitive couple team, but they definitely had a bit of a meltdown at the Detour and almost got eliminated. Should be interesting to see if they recover and make a run of it.

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