Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd get cut from 'The Amazing Race'

Newly dating former Big Brother houseguests Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd became the fifth team eliminated from The Amazing Race's sixteenth season during Sunday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition.


"I got one million reasons to complain but I can't, doing this is priceless.  I definitely got paid in a way that most people don't," Jeff said following their elimination.

"I got to do fun stuff.  I've never traveled before, it really was just the best," Jordan added.

"That was beautiful Jordan," Jeff replied as he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.

The Amazing Race's sixth sixteenth-season episode began with the seven remaining teams leaving the Race's fifth Pit Stop near Vardun, France.


Since they had been the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop, "Detectives" Louis Stravato and Michael Naylor were the first team to depart at 7:37AM.

They were then followed by "Father/Daughter" Steve Smith and Allie Smith at 8:04AM, "Brothers/Cowboys" team of Jet McCoy and Cord McCoy at 8:13AM, "Brothers" Dan Pious and Jordan Pious at 8:17AM, "Dating Couple" Carol Rosenfeld and Brandy Snow at 8:39AM, "Dating Models" Caite Upton and Brent Horne at 9:48AM, and Jeff and Jordan at 10:28AM.

Upon opening their departure clues, the teams were instructed to drive themselves 37 miles to the city of Reims and "find the only outdoor statue of Joan of Arc and then listen to what you saw."

All of the teams appeared to manage to find their way to Reims without significant issue, however several of the teams had trouble finding the statue and determining they needed to ask a street musician who was playing a singing sword for their next clue.

"Cathy Drone?" Dan asked a local after she tried to tell them the statue was outside the city's large gothic cathedral.


"The people really do not speak good English here," he vented about the French city afterwards.

Steve and Allie were the first team to correctly locate the statue and street musician, who gave them a cork from Champagne Leclerc Briant, a champagne maker in the nearby town of Epernay.

They were followed by Jet and Cord, Louis and Michael, Dan and Jordan, and Carol and Brandy.  However while most teams consulted locals or tourism offices to help them learn that Leclerc Briant was located in Epernay, Jet and Cord just assumed it must be in Chalons-en-Champagne, a town about 40 kilometers away.

Once they arrived at Leclerc Briant, the teams learned it was time for the leg's Roadblock task, which required one member of each team to be lowered by rope over 100 feet to the winery's aging caverns and then search the caves for a champagne bottle marked with a small The Amazing Race flag.

After they had found one of the bottles they could then climb the cavern's stairs and return to the surface, where they would use a saber to slice the top of the bottle off and get the clue inside.


Louis and Michael were the first team to arrive at Leclerc Briant but were beat to the task by Dan and Jordan, who had followed Louis and Michael to the location.  Jordan and Louis both chose to do the Roadblock for their teams and completed it without significant issue.

Steve and Allie were next team to arrive at Leclerc Briant and selected Steve to do the Roadblock.

"Looks like upper body, you want to do it?" Allie asked.

"Sure, I'll do it," Steve replied.

Meanwhile, Jet and Cord arrived in Chalons-en-Champagne and learned it was not the right location.


"It's [in] Epernay," a local driver told them.

"Dang, Jet!" Cord said.

"Oh my gravy!" Jet said.

Jet and Cord then began making their way to Epernay as Jordan, Louis and Steve were finishing the Roadblock for their teams.

After completing the Roadblock and opening their champagne bottles, the three teams discovered they contained small notes that had "Taittinger La Marquetterie" written on them.  The teams then had to figure out that the notes were telling them to drive to Taittinger La Marquetterie, a chateau and vinery in the nearby village of Pierry. 


However although went to local tourism offices for help, Dan and Jordan and Steve and Allie were both incorrectly told that they needed to go to Taittinger's headquarters all the way back in Reims instead of the chateau and vinery in Pierry.   

Louis and Michael, who stopped a hotel and found a local who was even willing to let them follow him to the chateau, were the only one of the three teams that were told the correct Pierry location.

Meanwhile back in Reims, Brent and Caite were still struggling to find the Joan of Arc statue.

"Joan of Arc is a guy," Caite told Brent.

"Joan of Arc is a girl.  Why do you think her name is Joan?" Brent answered.

"Okay never mind.  Just kidding, I'm thinking of somebody else," Caite replied as she failed to convince anyone she had just been joking and Brent began to vent about her poor attitude.


"Here, you seem to have one of these attitudes right now, I'm going to listen to you," Brent said as he handed Caite the clue.

"I don't have an attitude, you're the one," Caite replied before they eventually found the statue.  "You need to stop with your attitude."

Carol and Brandy then arrived at the Roadblock in fourth place and Brandy reluctantly agreed to do the task.

"Yeah, somehow I get all the height things," Brandy whined after discovering exactly what the Roadblock entailed.

Jet and Cord arrived at the Roadblock in fifth place shortly after Carol and Brandy -- who also managed to ask directions from someone that correctly realized they were looking for Taittinger La Marquetterie in Pierry -- left Leclerc Briant.

"We have not had a very good morning, by the looks of the table there's been four teams ahead of us," Jet said after noticing there were four opened bottles on the table as Cord completed the Roadblock.


"That's not good, we started out in third."

However the cowboys' direction problems weren't yet over as a local also incorrectly directed them to Taittinger's headquarters back in Reims instead of the chateau and vinery in Pierry.

Meanwhile, Jeff and Jordan finally arrived at the Joan of Arc statue and received their cork.

"Go here?" Jeff asked as he pointed to the cork's stamp.

"Yeah, let's go," Jordan replied.

Since they were the only one of the first three teams to be sent to the correct location, Louis and Michael were easily the first team to reach the chateau and vinery in Pierry.  Once there, they received a clue which told them it was time to complete one of two Detour tasks: "Tower" or "Terra."


"Tower" required the teams to use exactly 680 champagne glasses to build a tower that was exactly 15 levels high with only one glass on the top level.  Once the tower was done, they would have to successfully pour a large champagne bottle that would fill the glasses with champagne in order to receive their next clue.

"Terra" required the teams to search a square kilometer of the vinery's already harvested grapevines and find a cluster of grapes that had been marked with a small The Amazing Race flag.  Once finding them, they would have to pick the grapes and take them to the harvest foreman in order to receive their next clue.

Louis and Michael quickly decided to chose "Terra."

"I'm a bull in a china shop.  He's a bull in a china shop.  I said why are we going to mess with something like that?" Michael explained.

Although they didn't find one of the marked grape clusters immediately, Louis and Michael seemed to complete the Detour task without too much difficulty and received a clue that instructed them to drive themselves to L'Orrca, a cultural administration building that served as the Pit Stop for the Race's sixth leg.

Meanwhile back in Reims, Dan and Jordan became the first team to arrive at Taittinger's headquarters and learn they had been sent to the wrong location.


"It's not in Reims, It's in Pierry.  Pierry is a little village close to Epernay," a female employee told the brothers.  "You are at Taittinger [but this] is where we do the champagne.  But La Marquetterie is a castle, like a big mansion."

"That's how fast you can go from the front of the pack to the back," Dan lamented as they attempted to race to the correct location.

Brent and Caite then arrived at Leclerc Briant in sixth place and Brent offered to complete the Roadblock task as Jeff and Jordan drove around Epernay looking for the location.

"Unfortunately we did not get to drink any champagne," Caite said after they left Leclerc Briant in sixth place.

"There it is," Jeff told Jordan as they found the Roadblock location.

"It said 'cave,' and I was like, 'I don't want to be stuck in a dark place,'" Jordan explained about why Jeff ended up doing the Roadblock for their team.  "We haven't seen anybody but you never know.  Other teams could get lost or something."


Unfortunately for Jeff and Jordan, they ended up being the ones who got lost.  Like some of the other teams, a tourism office incorrectly directed them to Taittinger's headquarters in Reims. 

However they seemed to still have a chance due to the ineptitude of Brent and Caite, who appeared to just drive around Epernay asking random passersby if they recognized the location on their note.

Meanwhile back in Reims, Steve and Allie also learned they had driven to the wrong Taittinger location, but their problems got even worse when Steve damaged their car's front right fender while parking -- resulting in the bent fender rubbing against their front passenger tire when they tried to resume driving.

"Duct tape.  My wife, before we left threw it in [my bag] and said, 'You can fix anything with duct tape,'" Steve joked after resolving the problem with a roll of duct tape he had in his backpack.

Jet and Cord then also arrived in Reims and discovered they were at the wrong Taittinger location.

"[That's] the second time today we went to the wrong town, so we're getting used to it," Cord said as they drove to the correct Pierry location.


Despite going to the wrong location initially, Dan and Jordan still managed to beat Carol and Brandy and become the second team to reach the chateau and begin the Detour task.  Unlike Louis and Michael, they choose the "Tower" task.

"I personally believe when you have a luck challenge and a skill challenge you always pick the skill [one]," Jordan explained.

Carol and Brandy then arrived at the Roadblock in third place and chose the "Terra" task, which they managed to complete as Dan and Jordan were still working on their tower.

Steve and Allie then arrived at the Roadblock next and also chose the "Terra" option, which they also managed to complete as Dan and Jordan still continued the "Tower" option.

Meanwhile, Louis and Michael became the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop.

"Who loves you Phil!" Michael shouted as the pair completed their third-straight first place finish.


Carol and Brandy then arrived at the Pit Stop in second place, however they picked up an unexpected tail along the way: Brent and Caite, who were still struggling to find out where Taittinger La Marquetterie was and thought they could follow the women to the location after noticing them driving past.

"Yes, we caught up to the lesbians!" Caite said.

"We're awesome!" Brent added.

But Brent and Caite's bubble burst when they followed the women right to the Pit Stop mat.

"We didn't do the Detour," Brent told Phil as he welcomed the pair to the Pit Stop.

"We didn't get a clue for the Detour," Caite explained.


"I was wondering how we got here so quick!  We've done that twice now," Brent lamented after they realized their mistake and raced back to their car.

"Damn, I wanna get the stupid lesbians out.  I hate them," said Caite.

Back in Reims, Jeff and Jordan arrived at Taittinger's headquarters and learned they were at the wrong spot.

"Oh my god, this is awful!" Jordan said as the couple scrambled to Taittinger La Marquetterie as Brent and Caite somehow found the chateau and decided, despite Caite's disapproval, to attempt the "Terra" Detour option.

"I do not want to do the grape one but I'm just going to go with Brent's decision because always seems to think that he knows which one is the easiest.  I think looking for something in about two acres is absolutely stupid," Caite said as she began sulking.

Jet and Cord then arrived at the chateau while Dan and Jordan were still completing the "Towers" task and joined Brent and Caite on the "Terra" task.


Steve and Allie then arrived at the Pit Stop in third place.

Meanwhile, Caite's frustration about the "Terra" task boiled over when Jet and Cord managed to find some marked grapes before her team and move into fourth place.

"Do you want to build or do you want to look, answer my question!" she screamed at Brent. 

"I think we should build.  I just think we would have already been done building," she added, unaware that Dan and Jordan were still slowly building their tower of glasses despite having been the second team to arrive at the Detour.

"Alright, let's go.  I'm listening to you," Brent eventually said.

"There's the boys," Caite said as they began the "Tower" Detour task and noticed Dan and Jordan were still there.


"I might as well let you build this by yourself, you're Miss Perfect," Brent told Caite as she began to boss him around during the task.

"I know, that's why you date me," she replied.

Although their tower's final three levels all consisted of a single glass and they struggled to pour the oversized champagne bottle, the brothers eventually managed to finish the "Towers" task without any significant setbacks.

"It was a very, very, very difficult task," Jordan said before the brothers arrived at the Pit Stop in fifth place -- one spot behind Jet and Cord, who had arrived in fourth place.

Meanwhile, Brent and Caite continued to argue as they attempted to complete their own tower of glasses.

"From now on, I'm just going to listen every single word Caite says.  We probably would have found a set of grapes by now but I would have had my ear chewed off also for the last hour and twenty minutes," Brent said.


While they eventually finished the tower, it collapsed as Brent was attempting to fill the glasses with champagne, causing the couple to decide to switch back to the "Terra" Detour option again.

"This is so frustrating!" Brent said.

"Baby just calm down, we did our best," Caite replied.

Jeff and Jordan then finally arrived at the chateau and discovered, much to their surprise, that another team was still at the location.

"Somebody might still be in there!" Jeff said.  "It's a race to the finish, I guess."

"Oh my god," Jordan said excitedly.


Jeff and Jordan initially choice the "Terra" option but decided to switch to "Tower" after  noticing the other team -- which they didn't seem to realize was Brent and Caite -- was doing it.

"Is that people searching up there?  Maybe we should do the [other] thing, because they can't find it," he told Jordan, who agreed with the idea.

Meanwhile, Caite -- who appeared unaware of Jeff and Jordan's arrival -- seemed to continue rehearsing her goodbye platitudes.

"Things are meant to happen for a reason.  We came in here without a million dollars and are doing perfectly fine, we can leave without a million dollars," she said.

"Can you walk a little bit faster?" Brent asked.

"You don't have to be mean!" Caite replied.


"Well just walk, come on!" Brent shouted back.

Despite their bickering, Brent and Caite managed to find a marked cluster of grapes before Jeff and Jordan finished building their tower, which eventually crumbled as Jeff was attempting to finish the last few levels, causing the couple to switch their original "Terra" choice.

"Oh god, we should have stayed with this!" Brent shouted after Caite found the grapes.

"I'm sorry," Caite replied meekly before they speed off to the Pit Stop and checked-in in sixth place.

"Five? Six?" Caite said when Phil, who was accompanied by a mime at the Pit Stop, held up six fingers to tell the couple their checked-in position.

"Come on, add up all the fingers," Brent joked as he and Phil both laughed at Caite's expense.


After searching the grapevines well past sunset, Jeff and Jordan eventually found a marked cluster of grapes.

"I thought we were going to be out here all night," Jordan said after she found the cluster, much to Jeff's amusement.

"How pissed do you think Phil is?" Jeff joked.

And once they got to the Pit Stop, Phil confirmed their elimination.






About The Author: Steven Rogers