Race Across the World 2026 Final teams reveal how the epic journey changed their relationships and what winning would mean to them

After racing over 11,000km through Europe and Asia, across the world’s largest continental landmass, the teams face one final test of endurance as they embark on the last leg of their Race Across the World.

In a journey of extremes, they have travelled from the sun-soaked streets of Palermo to the icy steppe of northern Mongolia, and now just 950km stand between them and the finish line in Hatgal, where the first team to cross the finish line will claim victory and a £20,000 prize.

• Watch Race Across The World on BBC iPlayer and add to your Watchlist

As the race draws to a close, the teams all take the time to reflect on their epic adventure, where bonds have deepened and lifelong memories have been made. Which pair will triumph and take home the £20,000 prize as the winners of the sixth series of Race Across the World? 

Watch the Race Across The World Final on iPlayer and BBC One from 8pm on Thursday 21 May.

SPOILER WARNING: Make sure you've caught up on Race Across The World episode seven before reading!

MW

Race Across The World 2026 Finalists

Andrew and Molly

What has been your highlight of the race so far?

Molly: For me, it was the last two home stays, they were just amazing. The were moments with families, where it felt like you were really doing Race Across the World, it felt very real. You are meeting people that you never thought you would meet, in places you never thought you would be, so that was a real highlight for me.

Andrew: Getting to Mongolia was the highlight for me. I've always wanted to go to Mongolia and I’ve always dreamt of Mongolia as a young fella. The fascination I had with Genghis Khan and this land that you would never have got to, and we were actually standing in it, it was like going to the moon.

How do you feel to have made it this far in the with the final leg to go?

Andrew: There’s a lot of mixed emotions. Mixed emotions of coming to the end of an experience that we never thought that we could do, and mixed emotions that we are now in with a chance of actually winning. We have also been away from home for a long time now though, so I’m missing my wife.

Molly: We’re going into the last leg knowing that we have thoroughly enjoyed the first seven, and we are willing to do whatever we need to. The next leg is just about absolutely going for it. We have the budget to do it, we have the time to do it, and we have the energy. We’re just really excited to get going.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

Molly: I think Khiva was tough. You were halfway, but you were only halfway in that sense. I found the race side of it quite difficult because you were constantly wanting to keep moving, but you were doing the most amazing things in the world, and going to these beautiful places, but your only thought was, ‘how do you get out of here?’, which is quite deflating and quite upsetting.

Andrew: It was that constant pressure of having to make decisions and kind of missing out because you had to keep racing, so we kind of made a call that we would race when we had to, but enjoy it where we can. So the biggest challenge for me was having to feel like you’re in race mode all the time, with the added lack of sleep as well. I’ve loved everything about the experience, but having to race was hard.

How has your relationship changed as a result of the show?

Molly: Our relationship has changed from father and daughter to very much, a team. At the start, I was very kind of ready for him to take the lead and let him make the shots, and then towards the end, I was able to kind of step up and do what I needed to do. We both relied on each other just as heavily, and we’ve really understood what this journey has meant to each other and have wanted to just see each other enjoy it.

Andrew: Molly's always been there, but now I see her more as a very, very capable adult who will do her own thing and will go through the world and be happy, and do her job, and be very good at it. As a father and daughter, I couldn't ask for anything better. My relationship with her is less of a father's frustration, and more of an equal partnership now.

What are your biggest life lessons of the journey so far?

Molly: For me, it’s that you can't plan the next journey in life, and that's quite sad, but you don't know what's going to happen. Daddy's heart attack, and me taking a year out, there are so many things that we would not have predicted but you just have to let life happen. As Daddy says, you stick by your decisions, and you just keep going and you see where life ends up, and hopefully it's a better place than you were.

Andrew: I'm getting to that age, where you see opportunity, and you have to take it. I kicked myself years ago for not taking the opportunities for a variety of reasons, some of that just because of fear of myself, but I’ve learnt to just take the opportunity when it arises, because it might never come around again. And probably the biggest thing that I will take back with me, is the kindness of people. The world is full of very, very kind people.

Did you surprise yourself during this experience?

Andrew: Every second. I started off this whole thing in Palermo, not actually thinking and believing that I would complete it. I just wasn’t sure if I had the wherewithal within me or the physical ability to do it post heart attack. I left a lot of crutches behind, my wife, my home, but this race has given me the ability to be a bit more positive and confident about things now.

Molly: I think what surprised me was just how good everything is. You can get down and be very upset, especially myself as an overthinker, but I realised quite quickly how that is the only problem in the world, me overthinking it. Nobody else is overthinking it, everybody else is getting on with their day. Things will work out, and it has so far. We’ve got to Mongolia!

Who do you think is your biggest competition going into the final leg?

Andrew: Jo & Kush have been beside us so much, and going into the last leg, we are of course the top two teams. We’re quite ahead of Katie & Harrison and Mark & Margo and things would need to go really bad for it not to be one of us two teams, I think. But in this race, anything can happen.

Molly: Can I say Mongolia itself? What we have learnt in the last leg is that it can go your way really easily or go against you really easily.

What would winning the race mean to you?

Molly: To me, winning would just prove to us that you can enjoy it and race it. We have enjoyed seven legs completely and wholeheartedly, and so to win it whilst enjoying it would mean everything to us. What I have always wanted to take away from the trip, was that I had no regrets in any way of what we did, racing wise or enjoyment wise, but everything is now about winning from this leg on.

Andrew: We've raced when we’ve had to, and we’ve enjoyed it when we were able to. We’ve kind of had a mantra from about the fifth leg to stay in the game. Winning has never been our biggest reason for doing the race, but now we are so close, we are going to take every chance we can to win. We’ve got the budget, so whatever has to be done, has to be done.

Would you recommend the experience or do it again?

Molly: Absolutely, and I would do it all again. If there's ever an all-star series, we will be there.

Andrew: If you asked me to do it again in the morning, I would do it. Would I recommend it to anyone else? No, for the simple reason that there would be nobody else to do it, and therefore we could do it all over again.

Jo and Kush

What has been your highlight of the race so far?

Kush: I think for me, it was hearing the Mongolian throat singer because we just didn’t expect it and it gave us that taste of culture that you really aim to get on the race.

Jo: I really enjoyed the walnut farm. Because the race can be so stressful, being in the forest was such a calming environment. There was lots of different terrain on the race, but this was the first time we had been anywhere like this.

How do you feel to have made it this far in the race with the final leg to go?

Kush: It’s relieving to have got to Mongolia, because that was such a big part of the entire journey, making sure that we actually got here. So ticking Mongolia off the list is definitely a massive bonus, but it’s now very stressful, because every decision matters going into the last leg.

Jo: For me, the fact that we got this far is a win itself. The whole point of the race was to make it to Mongolia, and the fact that we are now so close to the end, we feel like we have fully fulfilled the entire trip.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

Kush: Switching off the race brain and enjoying it. Trying to step away from the challenge of it all, and the competitive aspect and trying to lean more into the travelling aspect was tough. It was difficult to find a balance.

Jo: When we moved into Asia, the whole culture changed. The outcome of that meant even with transport, it was so hard to pick up taxis and buses and trains. Being in Mongolia now, there’s nothing here, and there’s literally like two roads, so the next leg is going to be a challenge.

How has your relationship changed as a result of the show?

Jo: I think it’s brought us closer together and it’s definitely shown how strong our friendship is.

Kush: I think it’s also shown that we can be so comfortable around each other. We’ve been so open with each other and have allowed ourselves to be vulnerable around each other which is very different to other friendships I have had.

What are your biggest life lessons of the journey so far?

Jo: I’ve learnt lots of little things, but to keep it simple, I’ve learnt how fast I can get ready. From being in bed to being outside, I can have food, have a shower, get changed and pack my bag in the space of 15 minutes, so it’s really changed the way I function on a day-to-day basis and made me realise how much time I waste procrastinating. So, time management has been a big lesson for me.

Kush: One thing Margo taught me which is really valuable is the power of your vocabulary, and how speaking things into existence makes a difference. Another thing is that everything is for a reason. It’s been tough sometimes to let go a bit and trust the process. In leg six, we were so convinced that we were fourth the entire time and then came out first. It just proves that you don't have much power over a lot of things, and you kind of have to learn to ride the wave.

Did you surprise yourself during this experience?

Jo: I think we surprised ourselves, but I think we surprised everyone else as well.

Kush: The whole thing was a surprise to me, because we came into it very naive. You don't know what anything is going to be like, and so you can try and predict what's going to happen but you are surprised every day.

Who do you think is your biggest competition going into the final leg?

Kush: Andrew and Molly, 100%. We came into the race as the underdogs, but Andrew and Molly, they’ve not won a leg yet and they’ve climbed the leaderboard and are now second, which brings that nervousness of them actually being the underdogs and taking over.

Jo: It has to be Andrew and Molly for me. They are so confident and are speaking so confidently about overtaking us. They’ve said to us ‘everyone has won at least one leg, and now it’s our turn’, so that’s kind of intimidating.

What would winning the race mean to you?

Kush: I think winning the race would be very validating, because it kind of shows that all this sort of lost sleep and struggle has a bit more of a positive outcome. I know that winning isn't the be-all and end-all but having the position of first place would really validate all the struggles.

Jo: To me, it’s honestly the equivalent of making it to Mongolia and doing the race is a win itself. However, I think we were a bit underestimated at the start so winning would be the icing on the cake.

Kush: We also want to do it for the Scoucers as well!

Would you recommend the experience and do it again?

Jo: 100%! Me, I would deffo do it again. It was amazing. I had so much fun.

Kush: I love the travelling aspect, but I struggled with the race aspect. The countries and the people were fantastic, but it was like waking up in a game every day which was hard.

Katie and Harrison

What has been your highlight of the race so far?

Katie: I think my highlight of the race was genuinely dancing in the Mongolian dance hall in leg seven, partly because it was such a local raw experience, and also just seeing Harrison so awkward was fun. I absolutely loved it.

Harrison: I think my highlights in general have just been anything that's super local - just anything that feels completely different to the UK and really puts you out of your comfort zone. Talking to the locals, doing the local transport, and being lost, sounds weird, but it was quite enjoyable.

How do you feel to have made it this far in the race with the final leg to go?

Harrison: I think it's the constant being on the go, and the constant feeling of being lost and how tiring that actually is. You would have to talk to people to find your way out and the language barrier can be so intense. I think they're the biggest challenges

Katie: For me, it’s the tiredness, which is driven by the constant go, go, go. Arriving in Mongolia, we’ve struggled with the lack of transport, which means you've got so much more to think about, and everything seems like more of a risk because of the lack of options available.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

Katie: Honestly, I'm just so happy that we have made it to Mongolia, and it looks like we're probably going to make it to the final checkpoint. That was our goal going into it, just make it to the end. Obviously, the win would be an added bonus, but the goal was just to get to Mongolia, and we've done that.

Harrison: We said at the beginning we wanted to win a leg, and we wanted to get to the end in Mongolia, and we're on our way to do what we set out to achieve. It felt like such an expedition, going from the hot weather in Europe to the freezing cold plains of Mongolia. It just feels like such a journey and it’s such an achievement to be here.

How has your relationship changed as a result of the show?

Harrison: We're still the same old siblings. We still take the mick out of each other, as that's our dynamic but we probably have a little bit of a deeper understanding of each other. I would say we are still the same 99% of the time because we're best mates, and that is why we're best mates, because of our already existing relationship.

Katie: I think, because now we've got this shared experience that almost no one in the world understands, it does bring you even closer. But as Harrison said, we're still great mates, and we can maybe have more serious conversations with each other, but most of it is still mickey-taking.

What are your biggest life lessons of the journey so far?

Katie: I think for me, it really is that realisation that we are on a floating rock, and that there's just so much more to life. Ambition is great, but you really can just go out and see things, and there is so much to see.

Harrison: I think I would say the same as Katie. I think I'm learning to live a little bit more and learning to enjoy myself.

Did you surprise yourself during this experience?

Harrison: I think I've surprised myself with my social skills and how much I took charge to go and speak to people, as I thought that would be Katie's main job. I'm pleased with how much I wanted to interact with the locals and get that experience rather than stay a little bit insular and let Katie do that.

Katie: For me, I do think that I give up easily, so maybe there was a bit more resilience shown there than I thought. But also, I think the fact that I was just able to keep up morale pretty much the whole way and keep in good spirits the whole way surprised me.

Who do you think is your biggest competition going into the final leg?

Katie: It’s between Molly and Andrew, and Jo and Kush. Jo and Kush have real resilience and drive to win, but Molly and Andrew, we think, have a lot of money. We’ve learnt that taxis and hitchhikes in Mongolia cost a lot of money, and you need money in Mongolia for transport, and they've definitely got it. We don’t know how much Jo and Kush have. They're both a big threat, but they've both got different strengths going into the final leg.

Harrison: I think Jo and Kush want it the most out of all the teams, they're the most determined to get the win, and that’s been their focus. But Molly and Andrew are also desperate to get their names at the top of the book for the first time.

What would winning the race mean to you?

Katie: I think winning the race for me would just be nice to see Harrison win it, because I know how hard he's worked to get us both to the final checkpoint. I have just loved the whole experience, and I would be happy to just get to the final checkpoint, but I want to win for Harrison, because he deserves that.

Harrison: I'd love to win. It's not for the prize money but it's for the fact that you can say you’ve won the race. I guess it's just a personal pride thing. We've already sort of won 50% of it on a leg-by-leg basis, so it would be nice to crown it off with the overall win.

Would you recommend the experience and do it again?

Harrison: I would do Race Across the World repeatedly with no break, over and over again. I would just keep doing it. I don't care how tiring or how challenging it is, it's such an amazing experience. I would do it infinitely.

Katie: Absolutely, I echo that. I keep saying, nothing will ever, ever top the experience of Race Across the World - not my wedding day, not the birth of my children… I loved it, I loved every single second of it and I would do it over and over again on repeat. I don't want it to end.

Mark and Margo

What has been your highlight of the race so far?

Margo: I would say my ‘Margo day’ in Georgia and dancing with the ladies on the train. There are so many highlights, but they're the ones that just immediately come to mind.

Mark: I think for me, it was perhaps Meteora, and meeting Naomi on the way to Meteora, that was really special. The other one would always be meeting Umit in Ankara, who I made the salads with in his wonderful little cafe restaurant.

How do you feel to have made it this far in the race with the final leg to go?

Margo: We are absolutely thrilled to make it this far because we knew we were spending money on keeping ourselves well as older people, so we are just glad we could survive this far and get this far. We are really proud of ourselves and how we've worked together and understood each other more each leg.

Mark: I think the adversities of leg seven, and being able to overcome those together, has been quite a big turning point in our friendship. We worked really hard together and when we were low, Margo had some extra energy and joy to raise us up and force us to continue to the checkpoint. It was tough but our friendship has strengthened and we are determined to keep going to that finish line.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

Mark: It’s been the last leg for us. Working together and just pushing on, our friendship was strengthened, and the bond that Julia saw between us materialised. Julia was there with us, and she was the bond that joined us together that allowed us to actually fight on.

Margo: When we realised we'd fallen behind this last leg, we were devastated. Because we were delayed and could not go on that night, we know we have fallen so far behind, and it almost feels like the chances of winning are disappearing. We feel sad, and heavy, and we just want to be able to finish the race, but we know it’s going to cost us money which we don’t have lots of, but we will pull together as a team, and there is so much power in that.

How has your relationship changed as a result of the show?

Mark: We've become good friends. It’s changed our relationship considerably. Personally, I think that particular leg, leg 7, just being in that situation together, and having to pull together and work together, we just became very close friends. I think we have quite a deep friendship now from all we have been through together and I have a different sort of perspective on Margo now. She has deep strengths and commitment and I never realised or appreciated those before. She is there to support you and the support she gave me on this penultimate leg is amazing.

Margo: It really is a deep friendship that respects, appreciates and celebrates the differences, and then when it comes to what's really important, just working together and being there for each other, we will get to that final checkpoint, and there is real strength and beauty in that depth.

What are your biggest life lessons of the journey so far?

Mark: For me, it's to live life to the full, and experience what you can, and enjoy life. There's no point in going along on a sort of a general course, go out there, meet people and engage with people. You meet so many interesting people, and you experience different cultures and environments just by talking to people. It’s so uplifting and something I've never really done. I've been quite insular, quite cautious about talking to people, but now engaging with people is such a warm and engaging thing to do.

Margo: The warmth of human connection. Being with people and sharing joy, it's international - it crosses all boundaries and all societies. There are so many people out there to help. But also, take a risk! Because even if things go wrong, it's just life. Even in the dark bits and the hard bits, there's things to be learned so don't be afraid to just do it. Do anything that your heart sings out to do.

Mark: And everyone should have a Margo day!

Did you surprise yourself during this experience?

Margo: I think I was surprised that I could actually get up each day and treat each day as a new day and just be positive. I didn't really know I'd be able to do that for two months, no matter what life has thrown at me. By the evening, I could be low and be tired, but the next day is a new day and I embraced that. So I was maybe surprised I had the capacity for that to find resilience and determination each day. Things went wrong but what came from those wrongs, was magic.

Mark: For me personally, there were times where I felt low during the experience, which I didn’t expect, but I was able to just get back to my normal self, so that we could push on. This cloak that I always put over myself to protect myself just disappeared, and it exposed me to fantastic experiences as a consequence. You know in the last leg, you can feel regret and frustration for losing a day’s travelling but then ultimate joy being in the snow with camels in the middle of nowhere.

Who do you think is your biggest competition going into the final leg?

Margo: Everyone! Katie and Harrison are epic, epic racers. Molly and Andrew have a lot of budget going into the last leg, so they can do brilliant things in a country where we know it's expensive. And Jo and Kush, we’ve grown so much respect for as they are so determined. All three teams are brilliant and so I can’t call it.

Mark: I think Katie and Harrison. I don’t know how much money they have, but I’ve always thought the boys might run out of money.

What would winning the race mean to you?

Margo: I think we will feel like the King and Queen of the race! Winning it would be an absolute crowning glory and icing on the cake. It would mean everything and we would be thrilled.

Mark: I think we will be shocked if we win, but we would like to show that age is not a barrier for things like this, you can compete with other people.

Would you recommend the experience and do it again?

Margo: I would do it again if I had a great big budget so I could have some more of my treat days along the way!

Mark: On reflection, the experience and the camaraderie between all the teams, has just been fantastic. It's been a once in a lifetime experience and so I would definitely do it again.

Follow for more