It has been a hectic few weeks for Ryan Steele and Rob Goddard.
The co-workers are tying up loose ends before they head to Ottawa and Toronto for the live finale of the second season of the Amazing Race Canada.
The dynamic duo is representing Vancouver in the latest season of the wildly popular reality competition show – and so far, they’ve done the city proud.
Steele, and Goddard, both bartenders at local clubs, have clawed their way into semi-finals with three other teams. There's only one more episode to air on Tuesday before the big finale, in which one team will take home $250,000 and two Chevrolet pickup trucks.
“The last three weeks have been pretty crazy,” says Steele. “We’re still sucking, but it’s kind of fun because we’re usually the second-to-last team, so it’s really exciting. “
Steele is referencing the fact that the boys have been the last team to arrive at a pit stop twice – but as luck would have it – both times happened to be non-elimination legs.
As hockey Olympians Natalie and Meaghan team put it, the underdogs seem to have “a horseshoe…somewhere.”
But you have to admire their perseverance. As a penalty for finishing last, the bartenders had to complete speed bump challenges in addition to finishing the same tasks as all the other teams. In the last episode, they scraped by Montreal couple Alain and Audrey to once again finish in second-to-last place.
According to Goddard, the wait at the mat is even more nervewracking than it appears.
“When we get to the mat Jon just stays there and stares at you for a few minutes,” he says. “He does this stone cold look for a good solid minute and we’re like, ‘Okay we’re ready.’”
It has kept the race exciting for the legion of fans supporting Steele and Goddard.
They’ve hostied viewing parties of the Amazing Race every Tuesday at local pub The Junction, and they say the crowd has only become more raucous each week.
Last Tuesday, when the pair rounded the corner at the end of the episode, the cheers from their many supporters were deafening.
“Seeing how many people came out to watch that episode with us and then how crazy the bar went when we got to the mat,” Goddard says. “That was the best.”
“It was pretty amazing,” says Steele. “It reminds me of the hockey playoffs, to get that goal in OT. It’s a similar feeling. It feels great to be that team.”
Both Steele, 36, and Goddard, 25, say the secret to their success is that unlike some teams, they keep the bickering to a minimum – even if that doesn’t always make for great TV.
“We’ve also been, for TV, maybe a boring team because we don’t freak out, we don’t spaz,” Steele says.
Although – that might not always be the case.
“I’m a very calm person. Ryan can kind of stress out a little bit…but he can stay calm, too,” Goddard says.
“Rob, obviously, was made for this. I was not made for the Amazing Race. I’m the kind of guy who sits on the couch and drinks white wine and watches it,” Steele quips.
Despite their cool, calm and collected nature, the bartenders have been mixing it up in one of the more entertaining rivalries of the season against the only other British Columbia team in the race: Brother and sister duo Sukhi and Jinder Atwal.
Steele and Goddard say while there are no hard feelings now, the siblings definitely rubbed them the wrong way during the race. Especially after the sometimes-grating team U-turned the boys during the Paris leg, forcing them to complete a second roadblock.
“It was real on the show for me,” Goddard says. “I kind of just started to lose trust in Sukhi and Jinder and kind of started keeping my distance from them. They’re great people, but I just had mixed emotions about them.”
Steele felt the same, refusing to talk to the siblings in their first encounter after the U-turn incident. But he says he doesn’t blame them for using it.
“What they didn’t show you was when they U-turned us, we had a plan with Audrey and Alain that we were going to U-turn [Sukhi and Jinder],” he says.
Time will tell if the Vancouver duo can finally one-up their provincial arch-rivals and snag the grand prize.
The next episode of The Amazing Race Canada airs Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. PST on CTV Vancouver, and the two-hour finale and reunion airs Sept. 21.
Until then – the boys are enjoying their newfound popularity and plan on seeing where it takes them. For Goddard, the show has already opened doors for his modeling career.
Steele hopes the show will shine a spotlight on his comedy website, ryanandamyshow.com, which has steadily gained popularity in Vancouver and beyond.
A nationally televised show can do that for you.
“Me and Rob haven’t been hanging out a lot, but yesterday we went to the gym and walked around downtown for a good two hours,” he says. “Literally, 15 times we got recognized.”
“This last week has kicked into overdrive,” Goddard says. “Yesterday, myself and Ryan were getting stopped left, right and centre. It was a lot of fun.”
And watching them has been a lot of fun too.
