In fifteen seasons of Beijing Express, that had never happened. In the second episode of the edition “on the lands of the golden eagle”, broadcast Thursday on M6, for the first time, a “hidden pair” was caught by another team and therefore, as provided for in the rules , permanently excluded from the game. Alex and Sylvie, eliminated at the end of the first stage, had been entitled to a second chance: their mission was to finish among the first three of the day’s race without being surprised by the other candidates. . However, Jean-Claude and Axel, the grandfather and grandson duo got their hands on them in the last kilometers. The four protagonists return, to 20 minuteson this highlight of the show.
To prove that it was planned that the team eliminated at the first stage of Beijing Express could re-enter the race as a hidden pair, the production had asked the presenter of the television news of a national channel of Kyrgyzstan to announce this information on the air upstream.
Sylvia: We did not expect at all to return to the game and even less that we were told that through the television news. For the anecdote, the day before, one of the drivers who had picked us up had shown us, on his telephone, an article evoking this intervention of the journalist on television. But, at the time, we did not understand at all what it was about. We would never have imagined such a thing.
Alex: We made the connection afterwards, when the production of Beijing Express showed us the sequence of the JT to announce us that we would be the hidden pair. The driver almost spoiled us!
Sylvia: We understood that we could get back into the game if we went unnoticed by the other pairs and if we finished among the first three of the stage. It was a big challenge.
Alex: We were stressed from the start. Besides, it was very hot. Afterwards, we made a bit of a joke about it…
Sylvia: As it was stressful, we took the opposite view of having fun. Axel was a jolly fellow. He clowned around. It was still fun to hide, we saw the other pairs in the distance looking for us. But the goal was above all not to get caught.
Alex: We thought we were going to win! We could have been in the top three. We had come back well.
Sylvia: It was very tight. The other teams were shivering, dreading that we could do it. And then it was played with a hundredth of inattention. We were hidden by a kind of big 4×4. I had put a scarf on my head, a lock of hair was sticking out and Jean-Claude saw it. It was this wick that betrayed me.
Jean Claude : I had seen them [Alex et Sylvie] the day before, but I hadn’t wanted to… I told myself that we had to move on, that we weren’t going to run after them. The next day, when I saw them, I told Axel and we jumped out of the car to grab them.
Sylvia: When I saw Axel and Jean-Claude disembark, I was surprised. We reacted in a quarter of a second by taking the bags and running.
Alex: I had pain in my knee. I had trouble running.
Jean Claude : Axel was a kid, no one could have stopped him. It was impossible for me to catch him. When we finally touched Alex and Sylvie’s backpacks, I told myself that if we had been in their place, everything would have collapsed. Axel, who had been waiting for this adventure for years, bam, everything is collapsing…
Sylvia: It was a big disappointment for us.
Alex: I was emotional. Jean-Claude and Axel the same.
Axel: As our qualification was at stake, on the spot, I exploded with joy. But when we saw that they burst into tears, we felt a little guilty. We had just erased the dream of two people.
Jean Claude : I blamed myself. That’s when I understood that I was in a competition, that I wasn’t there to look at the landscapes – magnificent, incidentally – and that I had to go for it. I’m not very proud of that passage.
Sylvia: They were very embarrassed in the end to have caught us. Axel was in his ardor as a young man, I imagine myself at the same age on the show, he was hyperspontaneous, he got out of the car like hell and drove off without thinking.
Axel: We would have preferred another team to do it for us because it would have relieved us of the guilt of having eliminated a pair. But we knew that it was qualification for the next stage that was at stake.
Alex: It’s a game. We don’t hold any grudges against Axel and Jean-Claude.
Sylvia: We were disgusted to leave Beijing Express but we are not resentful in nature.
Alex: We already had the chance to be selected. We did our challenge, even if it was short, with great pleasure. And then, why not be the “alternative route” pair? [celui de la deuxième partie de soirée] of a next season?