Race Across the World reached its thrilling conclusion with best friends, Jo and Kush, becoming the first pair to reach the final checkpoint in Hatgal and claim the £20,000 prize.
After racing over 12,000 km through Europe and Asia, across the world’s largest continental landmass, it was the Liverpool duo who were crowned this year’s winners.
Sprinting through the snow-covered forests to reach the finish line, father and daughter Andrew and Molly came in second place, just three hours behind the winners. They were followed by siblings Katie and Harrison, while in-laws Mark and Margo came in fourth place.
Exclaiming that they “feel sick” before turning the page to discover they had reached the final checkpoint in first place, the boys celebrated their victory by piling on top of one another in the snow whilst shouting “We did it. We won!”
“I can’t put it into words bro!” said Kush as Jo screams with joy before adding “that’s how I feel bro.”
Writing their names in the book, Jo said: “The dream from the start was opening the final book and seeing it empty, so that actually happening… it’s hard to get my head around it.” Kush continued: “I hope we did Liverpool proud. Big up scousers!”
Sharing an emotional hug after turning the page to claim second place, Andrew said: “Congratulations to the boys. We had a tough final leg… We’re three hours behind the lads. What an achievement”, with Molly adding: “I didn’t actually physically think we were going to make it, but we did it!”
Siblings Katie and Harrison arrived at the checkpoint in third place, just under three hours behind the father and daughter duo, and after catching up by eighteen hours to the winners. Harrison said: “We couldn’t have done this any better this leg, and we’ve made it to Hatgal. And we’ve done it together. I could still just cry with pride and joy that we’re here.”
25 hours later, Mark and Margo reached the final checkpoint in last place. Thrilled to have made it to the finish, after a tough penultimate leg, Mark said: “I couldn’t have done it without you Marg, a true friend. And Julia would be really proud of us!” with an emotional Margo adding: “We haven’t won THE race, but we’ve won OUR race and we have come in fashionably late.”
The pair exclaimed: “Thank you Julia!” with Margo adding: “She’s laughing saying go get yourselves a drink, you deserve it, you mad fools.”
Over the eight-part series, the four pairs have raced over 12,000 km over 51 days. Starting the race in the sun-soaked streets of Palermo in Sicily, the teams have journeyed across Eurasia to reach the final checkpoint in the icy steppe of northern Mongolia, Hatgal. They’ve had to navigate crowds, cultural barriers, public transport disasters – all without smartphones and bank cards and carrying only the cash equivalent of flying the route.
Straight after the final episode of Race Across the World, the teams return for a heartwarming reunion celebration at 9pm on iPlayer and BBC One. From the euphoric highs to the brutal setbacks, this celebration of their journey combines unseen footage with exclusive behind the scenes access.
And with the teams reunited, nothing is off limits. In honest and unfiltered conversations, they revisit the decisions that shaped their race, reflect on how the journey has changed them, share what’s happened since they got home and reveal how their lives have been transformed.
Following this, the first interview with the Series 6 winners is available on Race Across the World: The Detour as a BBC Sounds exclusive from 10pm.
The BAFTA award-winning series reached 7.4 million viewers in the first episode, making it the biggest factual episode across the market in 2026 at 28 days.
Q&A with Race Across the World winners Jo and Kush
How does it feel to have won Race Across the World?
Kush: It feels like a fever dream. It’s such a bittersweet feeling, because it’s now finished and that’s the end of our travelling, but it shows that all our hard work, sacrifice, loss of sleep and hunger has all succeeded and it is so fulfilling to know that it hasn’t gone to waste. We just wanted to get to Mongolia, so winning was just an extra joy.
Jo: Seeing the empty book is what we dreamt of from day one, and to actually see it, in real life and not a dream, it’s just unreal. Season 6 is our season! And the pay check is nice too.
At what point did you start believing you could actually win?
Kush: Right from the second we applied! Once we avoided elimination though, we changed up our tone very quickly. It was almost like now we’ve got to win, because we’ve made such an effort to stay in this game.
Jo: I think for me it was from leg 6 when we finished in first place, I was like wow, we can actually do this. Going forward from that point, it was all about persistence.
How would you sum up the experience in just a few words? Kush: Honestly, it’s just like a fever dream.
Jo: It was the best trip we’ve experienced so far in our life.
What do you plan on doing with the money?
Kush: I’m definitely going to invest a fair amount into my future, and when I say invest into my future, I will invest into what I enjoy doing to hopefully build a career out of it, like travelling. Whatever is left is going straight into a savings account to go on a deposit for a house.
Jo: I want to spend some on my family and then a nice trip away, a holiday, but the majority of it will go into an ISA so hopefully I can buy a house sooner.
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