Thanks apskips!!
from Phil's interview...
We were in Europe this last time, and the teams got so spread out, and that's part of what made the whole series tough this time is that the separation was huge.
And there was a spread of seventeen hours from the first team to the last team [one time].
So the first team had left, and I was still waiting five hours in the middle of the night, in this cold location.
The only place to be was on the floor of an old building. This one journalist was like, "Wow, you're on the ground trying to sleep?" And I go, "Yeah, it's not like I can go back and lie down in a hotel."
At one point we didn't get to a hotel for almost four days. When we did get to a hotel, we were checked in for two hours. I took a shower, slept for an hour, got woken up and didn't even have time to unpack my bags, and we were gone again.
You just have to do the math. I still have to get in a vehicle and get from point A to point B, and still wait. The only time we're really stationary is at the pit stops, and the longer they leave us waiting there, the more of a nightmare our schedule becomes. For instance, in that European leg, the first team had a five hour head start on us leaving!
Five hours is a long time.
They get on a flight ahead of you to the next place, and then you get on the ground and I'm meant to go explain the Detail, Roadblock, Yield or Fast Forward before I get to the Pit Stop.
Well, if they've got a five hour lead, they're already through all those challenges, sometimes, and I've got to go straight to the pit stop. Then we've got to work out how I can back track, to go back to these places. Now if it's a two or three hour drive or a plane ride, it becomes a nightmare. It's not a picnic. And I love it, by the way! I carry my own bags and all the rest of it.
IGN