The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies winners speak: 'It's been a long road to get to here'

Warning: This article contains spoilers about Wednesday's finale of The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies.

The champs are here! After a long, grueling season, CT Tamburello and Kaycee Clark have won The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies.

This season's two-day final included a surprise purge elimination that saw Clark forced to eliminate her own girlfriend, Nany Gonzalez. Thanks to her win, she was then able to choose her partner for the final leg of the race. She, of course, chose the four-time champion Tamburello, and they were the pair to beat, crossing the finish line first and winning the million-dollar prize (read our recap here).

Below, EW got Tamburello and Clark to break down their emotional season 37 win and reveal what it means for their futures on the franchise.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations on winning this season!

CT TAMBURELLO: What's up, champ?

KAYCEE CLARK: [Laughs] What up, five-time champ!

CT, you just won two seasons back-to-back, got your fifth win, and now you're the second-most decorated Challenge winner, only behind Johnny Bananas by two. Kaycee, this is your very first Challenge win after three seasons and three finals. This is a huge win for both of you.

TAMBURELLO: To me, I think that Kaycee winning is the story. I mean, the comeback season, I was saying this to her earlier, to come back from an injury like that [in Double Agents] and to face the same fear at the very end, it's like Star Wars where Luke Skywalker has to go into the cave to face his biggest fear, you know? And she had to do it all over again, and she did it, and overcame.

CLARK: Gosh, thanks CT. I mean, I could say the same about you, okay? Five times. Back-to-back wins? Whoa!

TAMBURELLO: Well, this one was just important because I felt like it's the cherry on top for me. I came out of retirement to kind of claim—to me it was kind of like, I won, but I won my life back. It's been a long road to get to here and going through the whole "dadbod" era, I kind of basically had to rebuild. For some reason, it was just like if I could win here, I can win back home. So yeah, I won, but I won myself back. If I rode off into the sunset, I could ride off with my head high and be like, I did it. There's nothing else for me to prove, not to myself, not to anybody.

Did you come into this season expecting this to happen or were you surprised by how it turned out?

CLARK: I wouldn't say surprised. My ass was determined. How last season ended for me and just getting so close my first season, then I had a devastating injury, and so my third season, I was like no, I'm going to get this done. I had surgery and then four-and-a-half months later, I ended up getting back on The Challenge for Spies, Lies, and Allies, and going into the season, my main priority was just to make sure my knee was good, even though I wasn't 100 percent. Still to this day, I'm still trying to gain that muscle back in my leg. They say usually, for 100 percent, would be two years, and I came back four-and-a-half months after having surgery. I knew I had to go in there and just be smart but just know that my body can get through it and make it to the end. I'm grateful that I didn't get hurt again—minus my broken toe that I got in the middle of the season.

TAMBURELLO: I remember she had that toe! And everybody was sure that it was her knee. It's so late in the game, people start to look for any little reason, and with Kaycee, we'd see her in the mornings icing up and whatnot. We saw her with a limp. "I'm telling you, it's her knee," people were telling me, "it's her knee." No, she had a broken toe!

[Tamburello exits the Zoom.]

How did you break your toe and how did that affect you in the final?

CLARK: We had a day out on a boat on a Saturday. I was barefoot. I mean, we may have had a little drinks in our system. And I pretty much just slipped and my toe ran into the corner and then it was just completely purple by the end of that day. The doctor wanted to check it out and get X-rays and I said no because I knew that if they sent me home over a toe I was going to be pissed off. When I finished filming, I went to the doctor and the doctor was like, "Yes, you dislocated and broke it." But for the final, luckily it was not my big toe or a toe that I feel like I really need but I didn't think about it. More so, my knee was a concern rather than my toe because running that last leg in the final, I just have PTSD from last season. I'm like, "Man, this is the exact same way I hurt my knee and I couldn't continue the race." It was a battle but I made it through.

You had a much more emotional experience in the final than CT did with having to eliminate Nany. What was that like for you?

CLARK: Oh, girl, I've never had to experience anything like that before my life. I've been competing my whole entire life in sports and when I have an opponent, it's no mercy for me. I will run through your ass and nothing's going to stop me. But this one, it's my girl Nany! Someone I care about and I love. You can't write that. Me and Nany, we didn't see an elimination the whole entire season and our goal was to cross the finish line at the very end. The first day, we were able to start the final together and then second day, come to find out we had to go against each other. I was blown away. You've got to be kidding me. Our dreams were crushed. It was the hardest thing that I've had to do. I couldn't control my emotions. It was really hard. And after that all happened, I was just so angry that it had to happen that way that I was like, I have to finish strong and nothing's going to stop me.

What was it like when you and Nany reunited after the final? Was there any fallout?

CLARK: After I won, I got back to the hotel where she was at. Me and Tori wanted to go inside the room and surprise her—I haven't said this anywhere yet—and Tori was going to act as if she won. But I was holding the black diamond, I walked into the room, and we're like, "Nany, guess who won?" She thought it was Tori and then I pulled out the black diamond and showed her. She was just so excited for me, she believed in me from the jump. It was a good feeling to come back to her and tell her, "I finished, I got that win." I was battling back and forth because she deserves to win as well and she has everything in her to be able to win. When we had to go against each other, I was just like, "Damn, I already won Big Brother. I want her to win this." And we were just going back and forth, literally sitting back-to-back on that platform, trying to debate, "Do I just roll over? I just want her to continue." But she wanted me to continue and that's that. But she's going to get her win one of these days!

What's the status of your relationship with Nany now?

CLARK: We are married with three kids. [Laughs] Nah, I'm just kidding. We are happy, we are good. Being in a relationship in the game is crazy—you have no phone for a few months, no distractions. But now you go in the real world, there's so many distractions. You've got social media, you've got people that got their two cents that they want to put into a relationship that they're not in! But so far it's been amazing, we're really good at just not caring what people think. We now live together and we're just living our best lives.

Winning that elimination put you in the best position because you had your pick of partners for the last and most important leg. What was your thought process behind picking CT over Kyle [Christie] and Devin [Walker]?

CLARK: With me having the opportunity to be able to pick my partner, who I wanted to end this final with, CT and I have always talked about, while we're playing pool, "How cool would it be if we were ever partners?" That time came for me to be able to pick and why wouldn't I pick the legend himself? CT, he's a very well-rounded player and he's just really good at this game. I didn't know what else we had to do to finish this race, but I knew that I wanted to finish strong. Let me finish this race with CT. It was exciting.

Did you and Kyle have any kind of conversation about that or did you just immediately say no to ditching Kyle and he had to agree with you?

CLARK: [Laughs] We talked about it briefly. TJ asked if me and Kyle wanted to stick together and we were basing it off of time between the girls, between me and Tori. Because the beginning part of the race, Tori had a better time. So we weren't sure what was going to come into play the rest of this final. He was saying that he wanted to go with Tori because she had a better time, but then he also said that he didn't want to be rejected by me. [Laughs] So he was like, "Yeah, we're not going to be partners." We kind of did discuss it but I think he knew that I was going to pick CT over him. Poor Kyle.

How did this final compare to the two other finals you've ran in the past?

CLARK: This one, it was hard. It was really hard. Between the three, the one in Austria, Total Madness, that one kicked my butt because it was in the cold. The snow, the elevation was just a whole s---show. But this one meant everything because third time's the charm for me and it's also the same season where me and Nany got really close.

How do you think the final would have turned out differently if the Purple cell had lost the first day instead of the Orange cell?

CLARK: If we would have won, it would have been Tori and Emy going against each other. [Pauses] Hm. I would have liked that because me and Nany would have finished the second day crossing the finish line together. I would have loved to see her win. It would have been interesting. But you know what, everything happens for a reason.

Your Orange cell got to that torpedo puzzle first, but Purple solved it immediately and ended up getting the lead. What happened during that checkpoint?

CLARK: Oh, man. These puzzles! CT is just the puzzle king. It was so frustrating because we're literally going back and forth. You got the Purple team, then the Orange team getting ahead, and we got to the puzzle first. But we couldn't figure it out. Nelson [Thomas] thought that a triangle is the same thing as a square. [Laughs] I love Nelson but the tension's running high, sometimes your mind could just be so fogged up and you just can't think straight and all of a sudden, you have CT the puzzle king and his team catch up.

How long were you at that puzzle before Purple came in and solved it immediately?

CLARK: [Pauses] I don't know. We probably were there for a good five—you know, I don't even know. [Laughs] When you're in the final you don't really think about time. I think about that last leg, running up that hill and running back down, me and CT both have no idea how long that took. So I don't know, they just got it done obviously a lot faster than we did.

That final checkpoint where you had to run to the top of the mountain, memorize the code, and run back down, it looked like you were neck-and-neck with Tori and Kyle the entire way. What was that like for you?

CLARK: I just remember going up that hill and I could just feel my legs wanting to give out. "I just want to sit down here and rest for a little bit." But I knew I couldn't. We got to the top, we got our code, and as we're running down, this was the scary part. I was even saying out loud to CT, "This is the part where I've got to just be careful." It brought me back to the last season, this is the exact same way I hurt myself. CT was in front, and I was behind, me and Kyle were neck-and-neck. There were a couple of times where Kyle tried to nudge me a little bit, his little sneaky self. [Laughs] "Let me just knock Kaycee over and keep running." And Tori was right behind too.

The adrenaline just took over my body and I was like, "I have to keep good going, I have to stay focused." At this time where your mind is foggy and you're fatigued, sometimes you let your body just go and then that's how you end up falling. I knew that I had to make sure all my muscles, every step, I was staying strong and I didn't mess up anything. CT already made it down to the bottom and I made it before Kyle. I just knew that I had to get down there before Tori because in order for us to type in our code, both players had to be at the podium. And then Tori gets there, and there were probably like 10, 15 seconds, they were right behind us. I'm glad that I remembered my numbers, I'm glad CT remembered his numbers, and we made it.

Did you enter your code correctly on the first try?

CLARK: We did, and we didn't. There was just a little confusion of, I had the first 10 numbers, he had the second 10 numbers, so I had to say my part first but I'm over here trying to catch my breath. It was a lot and you're getting frantic. "I better get this right or else I could lose a frickin' million dollars." It was just a couple tries to put in the code and then we ran to that safe and grabbed our black diamond. I just remember that I fell to the ground, CT's trying to talk to me, and I was like, "I can't even breathe. I'm about to pass out right now. I won't be able to enjoy this money, this is it." [Laughs] But it was a great feeling, still so surreal. I'm just so proud that my body, more than anything, was able to finish that without hurting myself.

Obviously, the final gets edited and sometimes we don't get to see everything, so what else happened during that final that wasn't shown in the episode?

CLARK: After we won, TJ was like, "You guys have the power to share the money or keep it all and if you want to share it, how much do you want to share?" They didn't show me and CT going back and forth. It's funny, he was trying to feel me out and what I want to do, I'm trying to feel him out, I'm like, "CT, I know what you're trying to do here! I'm really good at reading people just like you are." It was really cool we were able to come to the decision to share it. I think at the end of the day, we both knew that we wanted to share it. We were just trying to figure out how much. He's won before, this is his fifth time, I won Big Brother, now winning this ... I love to share and I'm glad that we were able to have that opportunity to share the wealth. It wouldn't feel right if I did not share it. We made to the final with a good group of people. We all worked together the entire season. We all kicked butt and me and CT, we both know how it feels to work your ass off for a couple months playing this game, make it to the end, and get second place and get zero dollars. It's not a good feeling. And they didn't think that we were going to share it, so they were really grateful.

And it definitely doesn't hurt that you've earned some social capital from those players for future seasons now …

CLARK: Yeah! [Laughs] But it's just in my character. I love to give, I love to make people feel happy, I love to make an impact. It was the perfect ending.

Do you have any regrets on how you got to the end and got your first win?

CLARK: Absolutely not! No regrets. I'm very good at controlling my emotions so I'm always analyzing, my mind is always on. Everything I do on the show, there's a purpose behind it. If I say nothing, I'm doing it on purpose, if I say something, I'm doing it on purpose, if I'm vague, I'm doing it on purpose.

Is there a chance you'll return for a future season?

CLARK: Maybe! I don't like to assume or expect a call ever from The Challenge, but if they do, I don't ever turn a Challenge down. And Nany has to get her win and I would love to be part of that journey and help her get there. How cool would that be for us to both be Challenge champs? Who knows what the future holds.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies recap: And the winners are ...
• The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies recap: The final begins
• The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies recap: The final elimination arrives—with a massive twist