I didn't see it as cheating. Sharing answers has been done before. If the cowboys had played a better social game, someone might have told them the distance. From some posts on other forums, the cowboys were apparently recipients of very good editing to appear as heroes on the show, but were actually rather antagonistic. At least during their first appearance on the show.
But it really made no sense to me why anyone would tell anyone else the correct answer for that task this close to the end of the race. I wouldn't have. Heck, it's a race for a million dollars, so the bigger your time advantage over other teams, the better. We've seen seasons where the third place team during the finale was almost a day behind. That really works for you.