Race Across The World finalists to compete in final leg

Race Across The World will see the four remaining pairs battle it out in the final episode to win a cash prize.

Brother and sister Betty and James, couple Stephen and Viv, and mother and daughter Eugenie and Isabel all agreed that it was best friends Alfie and Owen who were “the ones to beat” during the final leg of the BBC show.

“I think Alfie and Owen are definitely our biggest competitors, they’re quite a way ahead of us, so we’ve just got to do what we can to catch up,” Betty said.

Owen suggested Eugenie and Isabel have been “right on our tail, from leg one they’ve been our biggest rivals”.

The fourth series of Race Across The World saw the teams journey from northernmost Japan to the Indonesian island of Lombok in east Asia without flights or phones, competing for the £20,000 cash prize.

The finalists agreed that the competition taught them to “live in the moment a little bit more”.

“Appreciate what’s in front of you rather than having to forward plan all the time or having to have an answer for everything,” Betty said.

Eugenie said: “It’s just about being more adventurous and not just continuing with the mundane. It’s about living your life, it’s about living your life every day.

“Things come at you, go for it and do it. Rather than planning in a year’s time, in two years’ time, in five years’ time. There might not be a five years’ time or a two years’ time. So, live your life now.”

Alfie and Owen both agreed their biggest challenge of the “once-in-a-lifetime” eight-week trip was the hunger, while Viv suggested she found the lack of comfort a problem.

“We’ve never train-ed, let alone slept on a train. We’ve never travelled via bus, let alone slept on a bus. So curling up and trying to sleep on a stiflingly hot train, that was so noisy, and disorientating. That was quite tough, really,” she said.

“And then not only doing that but having to go straight to work afterwards. You’d get off a 12 or 16-hour train, and then had to go to work for six hours in the blistering heat. That’s quite challenging.”

It comes after it was announced that fans will be given a behind-the-scenes look at the show, in an episode set for release after the final on Wednesday.

A statement on X said: “For the first time ever, we’re showing you how the race comes to life. See what happens behind the scenes in the #RaceAcrossTheWorld reunion, Wednesday at 10pm on BBC iPlayer, straight after the grand finale.”

Race Across The World concludes on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.