Cathie and Tricia from Race Across the World have spoken out about the day they caught paths with other racers Claudia and Kevin and received, well, a cold greeting.
Let’s not forget that the BBC blockbuster series, which pits duos against one another to travel from one end of Canada to the other on a restricted budget and without phone service, is a competition, and Claudia and Kevin were certainly feeling the heat.
In Wednesday’s episode, the teams were charged with reaching the next checkpoint in Quebec City, and they were all feeling the pinch due to hefty hotel prices in the North American country’s biggest towns, with the father and daughter forced to pay more than $500 (£293) for one night.
The couple, who had already depleted their savings with pricey cabs, were understandably irritated by the exorbitant fare and were clearly still feeling the heat when they encountered Tricia and Cathie at a Toronto bus station.
After recognising Claudia and Kevin in the ticket wait, the childhood friends said ‘hello’ and inquired how they were doing, to which Kevin replied, ‘Alright, alright.’
Cathie and Tricia then said’morning’ to Claudia, who, visibly anxious, did not turn towards them and merely replied, ‘Heya.’
‘Wow, that was a greeting and a half, wasn’t it?’ Cathie and Tricia commented as the duo walked on by.
Cathie and Tricia told Metro.co.uk that they had a notion about what happened when they came upon Claudia and Kevin.
Tricia explained: ‘As the episodes go on, you notice that the race aspect definitely comes in [to play] and you realise that everybody’s in race mode, wants to win and get there first.
‘So when somebody doesn’t say hello to you, you’re just like, “Oh no, they’re having a bad day.” And you just brush it off.
‘I think in previous episodes you’d seen them waving us when we couldn’t get on the bus and giggling. Well, it’s a race after all and we all get on really, really well.
‘We’ve all been in touch with each other since so there’s no animosity.’
Cathie emphasised that there were ‘no hard feelings at all’ and speculated Claudia and Kevin were ‘feeling annoyed’ as they had caught them up in the race.
‘It is a race and we’re all in race mode,’ she continued. ‘But there’s absolutely no bad feeling at all.
‘And it’s always lovely when we get together again to celebrate this amazing thing that we all did.’
Race Across the World continues on BBC One on Wednesday at 9pm.