Hanoch has been having SPOT issues for the last hours, since he completed the climb to the North Rim.
He sent me some pics from his location about 30 min ago, near the end of the Kaibab detour.
He was just entering the AZT again and plans to ride through non stop till the finish line.

Go Hanoch, GO!

Let me tell you about Hanoch Redlich: he came to test himself on the Arizona Trail. And he will do just that, on the AZT.

His plan was to come to the states accompanied with his father, Abraham. They had a very special relationship. 25 years ago or more, when Hanoch was a young boy his father used to take him along for deep desert multi day rides. It was not called Bikepacking back then, just a desert trip. They were just riding bikes crossing no mans land, simply because bikes came natural to these 2, and bikes connected them together. I met them 15 years ago, in the first MTB century we had in the Israeli desert. Since then, Abraham was always near Hanoch, in every event and every race, always there to act as a support crew when allowed, and always near in his heart, on the many self-supported bikepacking races Hanoch participated in Israel and typically won (eg the HLC). Abraham was not a healthy man and in recent years suffered from recurrent cancer. He fought back, and never gave up his love to the outdoors. Hanoch and Abraham dreamt to travel together to the USA for the AZTR, so Abraham can be close to Hanoch during his effort. Alas, several weeks before their planned departure to the USA, Cancer won the fight, and Abraham passed away. Hanoch decided he will go and do the AZT, not just for himself, but in memory of his beloved father. On the night before his departure, he took this picture on his father fresh tomb.

Whatever the race organizers decide to do is up to them, and Im sure he will respect that. He came to do the AZTR, and he will do just that. Through heat, cold, sand or snow. Simple.

The Israel National Trail was not originally designed as a bike trail. There is a more recent project (see here in English http://www.ibt.org.il/content3/heb/english), of creating a mountain bike specific national trail, and some segments are already in place for a couple of years. I had the opportunity to ride most of them several times, once even with a fully loaded bike in bikepacking mode. These trails (single tracks actually), are well planned and well maintained, and not too technical.