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Amazing Race: #TeamTexas still smarting from double obstacles, elimination

Best friends Josh Ahearn and Tanner Kloven, better known in the reality-show world as #TeamTexas, were eliminated from The Amazing Race on last week's episode 9, coming up short in their chase for a million bucks.

How did they feel about it? Were they too chivalrous? What about that Speed Bump and U-Turn doled out to them in the end? Are they still best friends?

Ahearn, who is from Dallas, and Kloven, who is from Fort Worth, let their feelings be known in exit interviews this week. RobHasAWebsite.com posted a podcast interview and CBS.com posted 10 questions to Ahearn and Kloven.

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The two Texans with impeccable hair and sculpted physiques faded in episode 8, causing them to earn a Speed Bump designation. Then, the second-place team, #TheReporters, delivered the U-Turn designation, which turned out to be a crushing obstacle.

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On his weekly podcast, Rob Cesternino asked whether Ahearn might have been too chivalrous with #TheCheerleaders in the final task of episode 8. Ahearn and cheerleader Tiffany Chantell worked together in the final task, but Ahearn allowed her to check in first with a massive tray of Polish food outside of a Kraków, Poland restaurant.

By collaborating, they had the exact plates of food, which they were tasked to identify and deliver.

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"I was thinking, OK, if we have the same exact plates, when we walk up to make sure it's correct, I'll give them a minute head start," Aheard said on the podcast. "We didn't anticipate [host] Phil Keoghan to be 20 steps away [inside the restaurant].

"We thought it was going to be the next destination or find this next location for the next pit stop."

It was a non-elimination leg, so the worst that happened was #TeamTexas earned the Speed Bump for the next episode.

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"It was a pleasant surprise," Kloven told Cesternino. "We were prepared to go home."

In the next episode, Ahearn and Kloven recovered from the Speed Bump. But the U-Turn, in which they had to perform an additional task, was too much to overcome. Joey Buttitta and his partner Kelsey Gerckens, who work for a California TV station, posted the U-Turn on a check-in point at the end of the final detour.

"When we walk up and see that, that let all the air out of our balloon," Ahearn said on the podcast. "It was hard to see." 

Aheard admitted that it was a smart move.

"It would have been dumb for them to not get rid of us when they had a chance because no one wants to see us at the finale," he said. "If you line three teams up, and we're one of those teams from an even starting point, I think we had as good a chance as anyone else, if not more."

Kloven was most upset by the Speed Bump, which required contestants to do heavy loads of laundry and lay them out by a river's edge. It was tedious.

"I feel absolutely betrayed!" he told CBS.com. "I don't feel like it is right. 

"We were more bummed coming into that leg than any other leg because we knew we had some adversity to overcome. But, I feel it was wrong -- I'm not going to sugar coat it.

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Ahearn told CBS.com that the double obstacles left a "sour taste in their mouth.

"If it would have played out that we made a huge mistake or we did something wrong then it would have been easier to follow, but I feel that we were not given a fair shot like the other teams," he said.

TeamTexas also was hampered by Kloven's hamstring pull in the second episode.

"It definitely slowed us down a lot," Kloven said on the podcast. "They didn't even show half of it. I was limping around everywhere. Everywhere that we'd usually we beat everybody to, we were literally a step and a half behind."

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Although they'll not collect the big prize, they're still friends, they told CBS.com.

"I think I learned that Tanner is willing to do anything for me as a friend or teammate," Ahearn said.

"He had a pretty rough race that most people don't realize. There were lots of times that we could have gone home. He is a great friend and great competitor."

Kloven said Ahearn lived up to his expectations.

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"It just proved what I already knew--how competitive and loyal he is," Kloven said.