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Amazing Race's Amy and Daniel: The Stars Weren't Aligned for Us

A familiar foe struck again on The Amazing Race: bad taxi luck. After leaving the Roadblock in second place, snowboarders Amy and Daniel spent the rest of the leg aimlessly driving around Indonesia — in three cabs — putting them dead last. "We were crossing our fingers and hoping it was a non-elimination round," Amy, the show's first double-amputee Racer, tells TVGuide.com. "We couldn't lose all hope until we actually got to the mat and heard what Phil had to say." How long did were they lost for? And do they regret telling Abbie and Ryan the clue in the first leg? Find out below!

joyce-eng.jpg
Joyce Eng

A familiar foe struck again on The Amazing Race: bad taxi luck. After leaving the Roadblock in second place, snowboarders Amy and Daniel spent the rest of the leg aimlessly driving around Indonesia — in three cabs — putting them dead last. "We were crossing our fingers and hoping it was a non-elimination round," Amy, the show's first double-amputee Racer, tells TVGuide.com. "We couldn't lose all hope until we actually got to the mat and heard what Phil had to say." How long did were they lost for? And do they regret telling Abbie and Ryanthe clue in the first leg? Find out below!

Amazing Race's Rob and Sheila: We got screwed over

How long did you drive around before you got a new cab?
Amy:
We actually got three cabs. It's funny because we pretty much exhausted our resources. Anything anyone can think or question maybe why we didn't do it, we probably did it. They just didn't show us doing it, but there's not a lot of time to. We were out there for a while doing everything we could think of to find this location.Daniel: We asked if we could call information and the response was, "There's no information." [Laughs]br /> Amy: It was great that they showed that part with the lady. It really showed what we were up against there. We would ask businesses to use their computers and they would say the same thing. You forgot that things don't work like they do over here, where people just have information at their fingertips. We definitely exhausted all our resources.Daniel: The stars weren't aligned for us.None of the three cabbies knew where it was?
Amy:
No. In Indonesia, there are hundreds of businesses called Wijaya. They have "Wijaya" in the name. There wasn't just one Wijaya Motors. We stopped off at Wijaya Motors all day long. I think unless the cabbies knew there was an event with a camera crew or something at a certain Wijaya Motors, they wouldn't know to take us to that Wijaya Motors. Obviously the other teams either lucked out with a cabbie who knew or just came across it. How much time did you lose?
Daniel:
Four hours.Amy: All of the sudden, it hits you: We have been out here for so long!When did you start to think, "We're most likely last right now?"
Daniel:
We had our heads down and were just trying to stay positive and make it to the next challenge. I don't think it was for a while until we said, "We're probably in last place." We are really competitive. We're both competitive snowboarders. Because of that, we both have that competitive instinct, but at some point, when you realize you've driven by the same Wijaya that wasn't the correct one three times and the taxi driver had no clue where he was going, you go, "We may be sunk here, but let's get this thing done and see where we're at."Do you know how far behind Gary and Will you were?
Daniel:
We don't know, but it couldn't have been too far.Amy: At one point, we went back to the Roadblock to jump in another cab and we saw them still working on the balloons and we thought, "OK, we still have a chance." But then that cabbie took us on another goose chase and we ended up behind them.

Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan: There's healthier competition this season

You guys did well on the tasks. How hard is it getting eliminated for something out of your control when you know you've been doing well?
Daniel:
We're just really thrilled that we were able to do so good. I'm just extremely excited for Amy that she was able to get as far and do as well as she did. One of the big concerns for her in preparation was, "Was there going to be an issue with her legs?" And that had absolutely nothing to do with it. I think that was a relief. We were ahead of the pack, so it is disappointing because of the circumstances, but everything we took away from the experience was great. We only gained from this. We didn't lose. Although we're bummed out, it's really a positive thing. It's clichéd and cheesy and it sounds Colorado hippy-dippy, but it's all good!Do you regret telling Abbie and Ryan were the clue was in Shanghai?
Amy:
We actually loved competing against Abbie and Ryan because they kept me on my toes, so the speak. They were one of the most competitive teams. We were side-by-side most of the time, or in front of them, which was pretty awesome. It's interesting because you go in saying you're there to win the money, but when you're in the moment, your true instincts come out. For Daniel and me, we're used to working day-to-day helping people. We run a non-profit [Adaptive Action Sports], so we're always helping people. I think it was just our instinct to say, "Hey, it's that direction." We were still thinking that they had to figure out the location, of course. We didn't point it directly out. We certainly were more on the "Let's not create enemies; let's have good sportsman ship" side. I don't know if we could say it's a regret, but it's something that the next day, we realized, "OK, if somebody comes up and asks where the clue is, it's not going to be that easy."Daniel: This occurred to me the other day, but like I said, Amy and I are both competitive snowboarders and we compete in boardercross, so when we race, we're on for max 60 seconds. We're like sprint athletes. So when you put us in a situation where we're on for hours and days at a time, eventually you're going to get to the core of us. We are really competitive, but we're "on" for short bursts. When we got into that situation, I think they were able to get to us in that moment and we let our guard down a little bit. But regret is not a word I would use to describe that situation. That's who we are and that's what comes across. We're thankful for that, at least.Amy: It's been interesting paying attention to some of the fans and online conversation about it. We're surprised just to see how many people support our choice in that matter. It's almost like we were able to show who we are in that moment. I think we were looked at as not just Racers. People seemed to have actually respected that.

Meet the Amazing Race 21 cast

Do you think too big of a deal was made of the fact that you lost out on a chance for $2 million?
Daniel:
It created a dialogue within the community of viewers of "Would you do it or wouldn't you?" Surprisingly, there were a lot of people who appreciated the move even though it cost us the opportunity to potentially win the $2 million. I think we're finding that there's such a large support of that that it makes it easier to not second-guess it. It was a big deal for us. The other thing that occurred to us afterward was that it takes a little bit for you to get your stride and to get into game mode. I think some of the other Racers made that transition quicker than we did, but that really jogged us and gave us a kind of knock in the head. I think that next leg, even though we got in a bad cab, showed that we really played hard. I think if we had the opportunity to continue, I think we would've played a different game. That would've been a hard lesson learned.What are you up to now?
Amy:
We're working with our non-profit. My race outside of The Amazing Race has really just begun. I'm trying out for the U.S. snowboard team. Our organization helped get snowboarding into the 2014 Paralympic Games. I'm also right now one of the top-ranked adaptive female snowboarders in the world, so I'm training for the U.S. team and my goal is to make the 2014 Paralympics. Within our organization, our goal is to train the top snowboarders to also make the team.