Ada, Okla. (May 26, 2010) - Cord McCoy and his brother Jet had never seen an episode of “The Amazing Race” prior to being cast on the 16th season of the hit CBS series. In fact, Cord, the younger of the two brothers, doesn’t even own a television.
So prior to racing around the world, the McCoys rented DVDs of all 15 previous seasons and watched them at Jet’s house, taking detailed notes about what they might expect to see.
They employed the same tactic during the actual race.
Cord and Jet each kept their own personal notebooks, using downtime on planes and buses to record every detail they could recall in case they needed to reference a past challenge at a later date. They compared notes to make sure they had documented everything.
“We were writing down almost everything we had seen and done,” Cord said. “It made you pay more attention to everything that was going on.”
Unlike contestants in previous seasons, it turned out they only had to make a list of the order in which each of the first eight teams had been eliminated. According to Cord, “That wasn’t that tough, because for the last 28 days, it had become your whole life.”
In hindsight, the notebooks will provide a lifetime of memories for the two brothers, who affectionately became known to mainstream America as “the cowboys.”
Cord said that there’s a lot that goes on during the race that doesn’t make it on to the air. And as confusing as it may have been for viewers to know how close or far apart the contestants were, it was equally as difficult for them.
“Most of the time you don’t hardly see the other teams,” Cord explained. “If they’re one minute behind you, you don’t know that, or if they’re one minute ahead of you. It got where it kept us a little bit confused in that we didn’t know where anybody else was at, so when we would see another team we were ducking down.
“We didn’t want anybody to know where we were at. It created a curiosity in that everybody got to wondering where the cowboys were. It’s not like we had any secrets, but we sure weren’t going to give them any information.”
This past weekend, prior to competing at the J.W. Hart Invitational in Decatur, Texas, Cord talked with www.pbr.com about the goings-on behind the scenes of all 12 episodes of “The Amazing Race.”
“For that month it turns into your profession,” said Cord of the 28 days he and Jet participated in the race. “When you’re riding bulls, you know that your whole livelihood depends on you knowing the difference in the bulls, knowing how to adjust to different situations, so I think your mind definitely gets sharper, and in turn maybe that prepared Jet and I a little more for the race.”
Episode One: United States to Chile; Third place
Summary: Starting in Los Angeles, the teams’ first task was to take public transportation to Los Angeles International Airport and fly to Santiago, Chile. Cord and Jet arrived at LAX, but weren’t among the leaders and were bumped to the second of two flights. The McCoys tried to get a leg up on the competition by exchanging money while at the airport. Unfortunately, they exchanged for Brazilian money instead of Chilean, which put a big bump in their racing schedule. As the racers sped through the streets of Santiago, they had to complete several tasks, including a high-wire act and house-painting. As they blurred through the final stages, Cord and Jet passed teams through the stretch, including a couple who suffered penalties.
“Jet and I never gave up, and you can tell from right at the start that we were last for most of the first leg. I don’t know if you call it the cowboy way or a never-quit attitude. They showed our mistakes on the first leg, and the [second to] last time they showed us we were in 11th place or last place, and then the next time we showed up we won third. So they didn’t show all the quick, good things that Jet and I got to do. At that time they still had 11 teams to show in an hour.
“We ended up getting some good directions and we saw opportunities when we saw other teams hesitating or stopping. … I ended up throwing the pants and shirt away that I used that day, because we just slopped some paint on a house. I don’t know how many miles we had to run, but we ran every bit of it, and we knew we just had to be in front of one team. We just kept booking it until [show host] Phil Keoghan said that was the end.”
Episode Two: Chile; First place
Summary: A little cowboy ingenuity and a lot of luck boosted the McCoys to first place in an episode where they took advantage of their rural roots. While other teams looked at getting to their next stop via direct bus trip, the McCoys found a bus line that offered a one-stop route and that got them to the destination hours sooner. In fact, Jet and Cord slept in their vehicle while the other teams rode their buses through the night. Their trek ultimately led them to a special celebration involving llamas, where the teams had to dress the animals in scarves and blankets. They also helped collect the ingredients for a local dish, including gathering eggs from a chicken coop and milking a cow.
“I think it was the second leg that Jet and I ran with it pretty good. I remember we went to the bus station, and they were already making different team alliances and saving spots in lines for other teams. It was crazy, so Jet and I just definitely cut our path. Of course, it’s funny that they told us that this is the only bus you can get on and it’s the way to go. We were like, ‘Fine.’
“We still had several hours, so Jet and I just went to shopping around, and we weren’t ashamed to stay up all night and ride seven different crazy buses, and it ended up getting us to the trail six hours before every other team, because when Jet and I got there it said the path didn’t even open until seven o’clock the next morning. We parked there and slept in the car for five hours.”
Episode Three: Chile to Argentina; First place
Summary: All the teams traveled by bus from Chile to Argentina. Once they arrived, they played a game of poker against the Travelocity gnome, the lawn-ornament mascot of the travel Web site. The McCoys reclaimed the lead when they got to be gauchos, or South American cowboys. The “roadblocks” the teams had to choose from included a game of polo on a wooden horse or finding a buried treasure. The McCoys chose to maneuver the polo ball from one end of the playing field to the other in nine strokes.
“It was definitely working, at this point, and Jet and I got hooked up with the guy that was driving the tour bus. We walked up there and we were looking like we were looking at the Andes Mountains on the bus ride, and got directions straight to where we needed to go, so we knew we had exact directions, but we didn’t know what the other teams had. We got to the cars first, and we knew we were leading the other teams, so we just pulled over and let them pass. We didn’t want to lead them straight to the location. We could lead them straight there or be a car length behind them. It was funny. I remember Jet was driving, and he would go like 45 mph, and I would sit in the back seat for like 30 minutes and I’d turn over the map. I had this huge roadmap unfolded, and I’d ruffle it up because I knew they were sitting there right on our tail just watching, so there’s no telling what all they said about us. But me and Jet would just laugh.”
Episodes Four and Five: Argentina to Germany, Germany to France; Fourth and third place
Summary: The Oklahoma cowboys took the first flight available to Hamburg, Germany, and were joined by the undercover-detective team of Michael Naylor and Louie Stravato.. Once in Hamburg, the two teams had to join forces – one member from each had to endure a 150-foot bungee jump. But when they took off to the next stop, the McCoys fell behind. While Naylor and Stravato hopped a taxi to the next stop, Cord and Jet rode a much slower train.
They then had to decide between eating sauerkraut or playing soccer. Those who chose the food had to eat a serving or two of kraut in a certain length of time, while those who tested their athleticism had to hit five targets from penalty-kick distance. The cowboys tried to put their boots to use. But a Hamburg tavern eventually proved to be a turning point for the Oklahomans. The task was for teams to share a boot of German beer before they could advance. The McCoys don’t drink. “I never, never, never, in my life, want another beer,” Jet said afterward.
“We were the first team to the box, and the clue there said you had to partner with another team, so we waited on the next team to come in, which was Mike and Louie. When they came in, Jet and Mike teamed up and did the bungee jump. What got us on that one, for some reason, was when Jet and Mike took off, it said you had to take the subway. When they got back, we opened up our next clue and Jet and I were a little bit too focused on the rule, and we thought we were supposed to take the subway again. We didn’t have to, so the other teams took a cab and we took the subway. That cost us quite a bit of time.
“[Later] that was pretty tricky, because I had never played soccer. Soccer’s not the biggest sport in southeastern Oklahoma, so we got to learn that, and I got to drink my first boot of beer. And we got to do all kinds of cool stuff. When Mike and Louie got up to the lead, if you thought anybody was going to eat faster or drink faster than those two guys, you’re crazy, because they were going to be really hard to beat on those challenges.”
Episode Six: France; Fourth place
Summary: The teams raced through France, getting to the city of Reims to receive their first clue. Starting three-and-a-half hours behind, the McCoys tried to get to a statue of Joan of Arc in a city in the northeastern part of the country. But after getting their clue, the wheels came off. The clue sent the teams to a champagne dealer, but the brothers took a road not traveled by any other team, to Chalons-en-Champagne, a community southeast of Reims. The McCoys dropped to fifth place before getting to the distributor, where one team member had to repel 100 feet into the caverns that held the wine. The teams then had to remove the cork from a champagne bottle with a sword to get the next clue, which was hidden inside. Like most of the teams, the McCoys went back to Reims – where they thought the next stop lay – only to find out they were to have gone to the winery’s chateau. There the teams had to choose between stacking 680 champagne glasses or searching through a square kilometer of a vineyard for a tiny cluster of grapes.
“France was also pretty tricky for us, because we had a little trouble getting from A to B. Between the five people that wouldn’t tell us and the other people who pointed us in the wrong direction, Jet and I thought it was pretty fun that we got to see way more country than any other team. I’d have to ask Jet what country it was whose sign said, ‘Welcome to,’ but we even drove out of France and drove around for awhile. That was a pretty western leg there.”
Episode Seven: France to Seychelles; Sixth place
Summary: The McCoys started out the seventh leg in fourth place, where the teams left France and traveled to Seychelles. The teams took a helicopter flight to the Island of La Digue, where they came across the detour: either luring a large tortoise across a line, then hauling a bunch of bananas to the next stop, or loading a cart with coconuts, then attaching an ox to the cart and hauling it to the delivery point. The cowboys took the ox-cart option, but like two other teams, they left a single coconut behind. Upon delivery, they had to return to the loading point and find their missing cargo.
They then took a boat to the waters of St. Pierre Island. Jet dove into the water to locate a submerged case of bottles, returning with a single bottle that contained tools to build a small map that was to lead them to the final destination. They boated and swam to the island where they were to put the map together. But the McCoys left the bottle on the boat and found their way to the finish line anyway. Keoghan informed the cowboys that they had to return with the pieces of the puzzle in order to make the finish official. “There really wasn’t any other option than to swim to that boat,” said Jet, who burst into the water alongside his brother for a 600-yard round trip to the boat.
“I had never even heard of [Seychelles]. I thought, ‘Is this in France?’ … We didn’t know [it was a non-elimination episode]. We pretty much came back to the map a second time ready for [Keoghan] to send us home. Jet and I knew that when we ran to the map the first time, that we beat one team, so we were like, ‘We’re still in.’ When we turned around to go back out there again, the [other team] was coming in, so we knew that was it. That was one of those things, and I’ll go ahead and speak for Jet, we just about drowned, and the only thing we thought was, ‘Well, there’s a boat about 20 feet from us watching, and if we drown there’s going to be someone there to pump the water out of our bellies.’ We could have raised our hands and gave up, but I don’t think that’s our M.O. Giving up never crossed my mind, but looking back we knew we were going to be last, and never quitting pays off. … For cowboys, that’s our way of life. If you want it, there are always good excuses to quit, but it’s not the way it works.”
Episode Eight: Seychelles to Malaysia; First place
Summary: The teams left Seychelles for the city of Penang, Malaysia, where the first detour was for teams to choose between “Buddhist Tradition” or “Chinese Custom.” While most teams took decorative posts up a Buddhist temple, the brothers opted for balancing giant flagpoles on their foreheads and walking a distance with the items still suspended. In quick order, the cowboys completed their detours, then continued on. The next step for the McCoys, though, was a speed bump – an extra task they had to complete as a penalty for finishing last on the previous episode. The brothers were dispatched to a spice garden, where they had to sniff a pot of crushed spice, then determine the pot of tea that contained that spice. They did well, and were in first place when they reached the road block, where Jet had to smash coconuts to find one with bright colors inside. Then he had to put together a Hindu decoration.
“We knew we had to pull our hats down tight and run through this one pretty good. It was a little scary at first, because we ran to the Snake Temple to get our clue, and we had told our taxi to wait there. I guess he didn’t understand our Okie English, but he took off and left. Jet and I were hung out there on the street with no ride. … We chose the flags, and when we showed up we saw these flags on telephone poles with 60-mile-an-hour winds, and we knew we had screwed up. There were no other teams there, so they either all chose the other one or had tried and left. We knew we were last, and we didn’t have time to change. Who’d have known that a couple of bull riders were going to be good at balancing flags on their forehead?”
Episode Nine: Malaysia to Singapore; Third place
Summary: After their pit stop in Penang, the teams made their way to Singapore. In order to advance, they had to learn a complex drumming routine, then perform that routine on stage. After meeting that first challenge, the brothers faced a major obstacle when their cab driver left them at Victoria Concert Hall. Once they secured another cab, they got back into the race. The McCoys made their way to the Singapore shipyards, Jet counted the links in a large chain, and the brothers made their way to the next challenge in third place. They then took a quick ride on one of Asia’s tallest and steepest zip lines before wrapping up their portion of the race.
“Singapore was pretty tough. The team that won first were the guys who did the fast forward, so they kind of jumped on out to the lead. And that was the only leg [Dan and Jordan Pious] won besides the million bucks. The drums, I guess, were a little tougher than what we had planned or expected. It took us awhile to figure it out, and Jet and I were looking around trying to figure it out, and couple other teams had done it or left, so it was another one of those deals like the flags. We didn’t have time to change detours. We had to sit there and stick it out. That was one thing that I was real proud of Jet and I both – we never started anything during the whole race that we didn’t finish. I don’t know for sure about all the other teams, but I remember most of them giving up on a detour and going to another one. If Jet and I picked one, win or lose, we stuck around until we finished it.”
Episode Ten: Singapore to the People’s Republic of China; First place
Summary: The race started with the four remaining teams traveling from Singapore to Shanghai, China. The McCoys jumped into first place quickly upon arriving in Shanghai, but fell to second by the time they went by boat to their first roadblock. The teams had to use a time-honored method in making 1 kg. of noodles. They then made their way to the fashion district to outfit a model with the exact clothes shown in a designer’s drawing. When the model was outfitted correctly, the McCoys moved on to the next roadblock, putting the pieces of a giant puzzle together inside the football stadium at Shanghai.
“We were conversing with our cab driver and in China and they’ve got this number – when you’re sitting in the back seat, there’s this number you can call for translation – and I borrowed the cab driver’s cell phone and got an English translator, so we worked that way with our cab driver. But I think it came down to the road blocks, and, boy, I remember it was cold that morning, and Jet just went to work. He just kept whipping that pasta until he figured out how to do it. I don’t ever remember him crying about how tough it was or how cold it was.”
Episode Eleven: People’s Republic of China; Second place
Summary: The teams started in China at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and had to make their way to the Garden Bridge. That’s where they received their first clue as to the episode’s first road block at the Longhua Temple. The brothers struggled to find the metro station, while the competition made its way by bus and reached the destination first. Inside the temple, one member from each team had to count golden statues. The teams’ next task involved searching through a store full of figurines for pieces that had their names attached.
“When we opened the envelope for the eleventh leg we thought we were going to the United States. We thought the eleventh leg was the last leg. We thought we were headed home, so we were ready. We didn’t know what city in the United States we were fixing to go to, but we were ready, and then it sent us to the Garden Bridge in China, so we had some more racing to do. … We saw the world’s smallest guy and the world’s tallest guy within three days.”
Episode Twelve: People’s Republic of China to United States; Second place
Summary: The final episode began with a little strife. Although starting third, the Pious brothers scooted into second place at the ticket counter at the Shanghai airport, when Jordan effectively cut in line in front of the McCoys. The Piouses made another strong move on the plane, when they moved to first class and to the front of the aircraft while en route to San Francisco. That gave the Rhode Island brothers an advantage they kept through the remainder of the competition.
The last stretch of the race saw the final three teams traversing San Francisco. Cord made his way up Coit Tower, a 120-foot vertical climb. Then they got up-close-and-personal with George Lucas’ creations at Industrial Light and Magic. They made their way to Tonga, one of the nation’s first tiki bars, and carried large trunks to the American Music Hall, where they had to hang posters of the other teams in the race in the order in which they were eliminated. Then it was off to Candlestick Park for the final piece of the prize puzzle. The McCoys ultimately settled for second place.
“I was never so happy to see San Francisco on my flight schedule. I definitely think Jet and I could have kept going for a lot longer, but we were ready and just about worn out on the racing. But we sure weren’t going to give up at any time. … I don’t know the best way to put it, but it was rude. We got to the airport six hours before (Dan and Jordan) and they threw their bags in front of mine and we were all kind of laying there with all the bags in a circle. When they opened up he stepped up to get his bag and was all lined up and didn’t move. You couldn’t physically touch any of the other players, which might have been good for him, because my brother was a little upset over the deal. … I guess going into the last leg we were ready for an all-day workout and a tough deal, but I don’t know, it felt like one of the easier legs. Jet and I feel like we never made a flaw, but then again Dan and Jordan never screwed up, either. It wasn’t a Talladega racetrack, let’s put it that way. There wasn’t a lot of passing.”
[Cord McCoy’s signature PBR Touring Pro event, the Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. Cord McCoy Invitational presented by Ariat and Cooper Tires, takes place this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Pontotoc County Agri-Plex at 1710 N. Broadway in Ada, Oklahoma. For ticket information, visit www.cordpbr.com/home.html.Prior to the event, the “Oh My Gravy, It’s a Pink-Tie Affair” dinner to raise money for Pontotoc Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society takes place at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Agri-Plex. Tickets for the Pink Tie Affair can be purchased at the Ada Area Chamber of Commerce or by calling (580) 332-2506.]
