Thursday 4 May aired the ninth episode Of Beijing Express 2023the adventure game broadcast by Sky and available to stream on Now. Costantino Della Gherardesca and Enzo Miccio are the conductors of this edition. The ninth stage, in which the travelers covered 349 km, from Oudong to Battambang, decreed the finalist couples of this edition.
For competing couples, the conquest of Final of Beijing Express it was a challenge with no holds barred, through Cambodia, which reawakened old hostilities and consolidated strategic alliances, also leaving some physical waste to two competitors, Joe Bastianich and Federica Pellegrini, who came out “beaten” from the semifinal.
The ninth stage ended with the vittoria of the Italian Americans Joe Bastianich and Andrea Belfiore who chose to eliminate the Sicilians Totò Schillaci and Barbara Lombardo, who left the scene amid the tears of the other couples, but at the finish line the aftermath of a very fierce race remained on the field: injuries hit Joe himself, knee pain, and Federica, who stumbled badly during a test and therefore with an ankle almost out of use, and for the “Divina” – who arrived at the finish line limping in a decidedly conspicuous way – the participation in the last act of the challenge of Beijing Express, at this point, is really hanging on the response of the medical staff.
At the starting line of the final of the Sky Original show created by Banijay Italia, eagerly awaited for Thursday 11 May on Sky and streaming on NOW always with the guide of Costantino della Gherardesca and Enzo Miccio, there will certainly be the Bastianich-Belfiore couple and the Mediterranee Carolina Stramare and Barbara Prezia: to find out instead if Federica will be able to support Matteo Giunta, with whom she forms the newly wed couple, we will have to wait a week and above all for the doctors’ decision.
In the semifinals – 349 km from Oudong to Battambang – immediately held surprises: the Newlyweds, winners of the last episode, entrusted the malus to their bitter “rivals”, the Italian Americans, who thus discovered that they had to begin the journey together with the rapper Jake La Furia and his “Jake flag”, the black flag which, once activated via radio, required the couple to gather at least twenty people and improvise a rap concert. The flag had another super power: for its owners, it was enough to touch an opposing component on foot or wave the “Jake flag” during a car ride to get rid of the malus and entrust it to that couple. But the unexpected is always around the corner or, in this case, anchored in the competitors’ worst nightmares: the travelers first had to delicately carry two non-venomous tarantulas each on their bodies to the Oudong market, and then they had to eat an omelette to complete the first trial.
Archived the “Tarantula mission”, all hitchhiking to Kampong Loung floating village/: after a night spent as true “locals” among Cambodian homes, between one passage and another of Jake La Furia’s flag (with consequent rap), the travelers arrived at the Red Book where Novelli Sposi and Italo Americani, first two couples to jump over the partial finish line, challenged each other in the last Advantage Trial, whose objective was to prepare lunch for the local school pupils, making several trips on a rowing boat. The Italian Americans were the fastest: for them an extra place in the final classification and the possibility of giving a “bittersweet” penalty to another couple – and the choice fell on the Newlyweds, to whom Joe and Andrea they then returned the initial “favor” – which consisted in finding a hammock for a forced stop of 10 minutes at each radio call.
New run goal Moung Ruessei, but on Highway 5 each couple had to choose an “alternative” vehicle from the four options available: the Italian Americans, who arrived first, chose bicycles, then the Newlyweds preferred the sidecar and the Mediterraneans the Cambodian tractor, while for the Sicels, who arrived last, the only possibility was a crowded rickshaw. The new original vehicle led the couples to an even more unusual way of moving, the “bamboo train” made with a bamboo board: the couples had to choose their own driver and retrieve the corresponding board, correctly assemble all the pieces of which the train is made up of before boarding it and finally starting the journey towards the next flag.
In this sentence Joe and Federica suffered the two injuries, two episodes that have warmed the spirits of the competitors, between old rusts and consolidated alliances: it is no coincidence that the Italian Americans have restarted with the Mediterraneans, while the Sicilians have helped the Newlyweds in difficulty. Before the finish line of this infinite stage, at the Wat Ek Phnom temple one last mission awaited the travelers who had to make a foil to show all their determination, after which the long-awaited race to Wat Sangke in Battambang, the finishing line.
The first to jump on Red carpet it was the Italian Americans, followed by the Mediterraneans; final ballot with the Newlyweds and the Sicilians, with Joe and Andrea who preferred to save their “rivals” Federica and Matteo in the final, consequently nominating Totò Schillaci and Barbara Lombardo for elimination, a hypothesis confirmed by the black envelope. For Totò and Barbara, the farewell to Beijing Express was accompanied by the sincere tears of the other competitors, Joe in the lead: a touching moment in the decisive phase of a game that is a real life experience, from which everyone will evidently return a little changed .
And now, for the announcement of the winners of this Beijing Express season, only the last act is missing: the last very tiring kilometres, which will be covered with even more grit and determination and will run very fast under the feet of the three finalist couples. To contend for victory there should be Italian Americans Joe Bastianich and Andrea Belfiore, Novelli Sposi Federica Pellegrini and Matteo Giunta, Mediterraneans Carolina Stramare and Barbara Prezia, but the conditional sentence seems mandatory after the injuries in the semifinal.