"Train hard, race easy." In training, ride faster than the pace you'll race at. That way your comfortable, slow race pace will be better too. ▶ 3:45

A sample training week, according to Hanoch ▶ 6:06:

• Two volume rides: one long and flat, to build hours in the saddle, and one with climbs, to get used to the "psychology of climbing", when the scenery goes by slowly.
• Two short, intense rides of an hour and a half to two hours at a high heart rate: hill intervals, or simply a singletrack you love, ridden hard.
• And don't forget to ride for fun: singletrack, descents, whatever makes you happy.

How many hours a week? In Hanoch's view, finishing a 400 km race in time takes at least 15 hours of riding a week. The reasonable range is 10–25 hours, depending on your experience. ▶ 18:33

Strength training? If you already do it, keep going. Don't start something new two months before a race. ▶ 18:33

The last month ▶ 10:31:

• Put your volume rides back to back, two or even three days in a row. You don't need to ride the full race distance in training, just as marathon runners don't run a marathon in training.
• Ride with your bags. Your speed will drop, and that's fine. It gives you a real picture of your race pace.
• Practise camp at home: set it up in the evening, pack it in the morning, and time yourself. Hanoch takes 6–7 minutes.

In training, don't take food from home. Plan your route through petrol stations and grocery shops, and buy along the way. That's how you learn what works for you, and the ratio between riding time and total time. If you rode only four and a half hours out of six, that ratio will probably hold in the race too. ▶ 14:00

Plan your shopping while you ride. When you reach the shop, you already know what you're getting. ▶ 16:36

"Not less, but precise." Gear weight is a personal decision. Hanoch rides with 4.5 kg of gear, including a sleeping bag, mat and pillow, because without good sleep he doesn't ride well the next day. Another rider goes with 1.5 kg. Only drop what you really don't need. ▶ 57:49

• After a few days of riding with your gear, go through the list and cross off what you didn't use. Except tools: not needing your Allen keys doesn't mean you won't need them.

Air resistance matters more than weight. Bags as wide as your bars, like a mat strapped crosswise, slow you down more than another 2–4 kg. Pack long, not wide, and put more in the seat pack. ▶ 1:02:30

Everything tight. "Like in the army": when you bounce the bike, nothing keeps moving. A swaying bag slows you down and is dangerous too, because straps get caught in the wheel. ▶ 1:04:41

In Israel: tough tyres. The thorns at the end of summer are the worst. Puncture resistance matters more than tyre weight or rolling resistance. ▶ 1:06:30

Preparing the bike ▶ 1:09:12:

• 2–3 weeks before the race, replace everything you can: chain, cassette, chainring and cables. Ride them at least 3–4 times, because many chains break when they're new and weren't fitted correctly.
• New tyres a week or two before, with more sealant than the manufacturer recommends.

Night gear, even if you plan to ride without sleeping. After 300 km you may be wrecked and need to rest. Have something to sleep on, and a warm layer. In the mountains, in the middle of the night, it can be 3–4 degrees. ▶ 1:18:00 · ▶ 52:34

Repairs: fixing a puncture, including a big cut and taking the tyre off, is the minimum. Practise at home with the tools you'll carry, not on a comfortable stand. And practise refitting the rear wheel too. ▶ 45:00 · ▶ 46:38

• Broken spoke? You don't have to replace it on the trail. Wrap it around the next spoke and carry on.

Hanoch doesn't plan how many km he'll ride in a day, but until what time. "I started at five, and I ride until ten at night. Whatever I cover, I cover." Kilometres depend on terrain, heat and breakdowns. Hours depend only on you. ▶ 49:40

Your race pace will be about 2 km/h lower than in training, because of the gear, fatigue and sleep. ▶ 57:49

Don't book a meeting for the day after the race. Riders under pressure to finish on time start to rush, hit a high heart rate, make bad decisions, and end up scratching. "It happens at every event." Plan for it to take a day longer. ▶ 53:30

Water and food by hours: if the next section will take about five hours, set off with water and food for five hours, plus a little reserve. ▶ 54:30

"Ride the first 100 km as if they were the last 100." Your legs should feel good all the time. If your muscles seize up early on, you went too fast. Let the people going wild get away. ▶ 9:21

How fast? If you finish a 6-hour training ride at an average of 20-something km/h, in the race you should be at 16–17. That's the comfortable range. ▶ 25:30

One gear easier. Find your most comfortable gear, and drop one gear from it. Over the long run that's less strain on your muscles and knees. One, not three. ▶ 26:45

"It isn't harder, it's just slower." Hanoch doesn't like the word "hard" for a section with lots of climbing. If you ride at your comfortable pace all the time, there it simply comes out as 8 km/h instead of 20. ▶ 1:09:32

Riding with others: fun, but you talk and forget to eat and drink, and get pulled into a pace that isn't yours. "You'll pay for it later, and not only at kilometre 366, but already at 105." ▶ 16:30

"Climbs aren't harder, they're slower."

How much? On a long riding day you burn 5,000–8,000 calories. "Get ready to eat crap", because it's hard to eat enough from healthy food. Don't count calories in a race, load up. ▶ 21:00 · ▶ 31:37

Carbs all the time: at least 60 grams an hour, steadily, without long gaps. Energy crashes usually come from a lack of carbs. A roll with jam, dates, gels, sugary drinks. ▶ 18:50

And protein too: Hanoch told of events where he didn't keep up his protein, and his legs swelled. Protein drinks from petrol stations do the job. ▶ 21:30

A reminder on your watch: a beep every 20 minutes to drink, and every 40 minutes to eat. The harder you push, the more you forget. ▶ 13:40

No appetite? It happens a lot, especially in the heat. Get the calories in as liquid: sugary drinks, protein drinks, gels. "Your body doesn't know how it gets there, as long as it goes in." ▶ 31:37

At the shop: a litre and a half of sugary drink while you shop, about 600 calories. At the stop, eat something heavy, and for the road take small, light things. Find out in advance what gives you heartburn, salty or sweet. ▶ 24:24

How much to drink? At least 750 ml an hour. In the Israeli heat Hanoch gets to a litre an hour, which is 17–20 litres a day. ▶ 32:16 · ▶ 16:00

• Even a small amount of dehydration hurts your performance significantly. Try weighing yourself before and after a long, hot ride, and see how much you lost. ▶ 28:08
• A hydration bladder on your back: riders with bottles only drink less. ▶ 28:08
• At a stop, make up the shortfall. We're almost always a little behind on drinking.

Salts and electrolytes: drinking only water for a long time, without salts, hurts your performance, causes cramps, and can be dangerous. Electrolyte tablets in your bottles, salt pills every two or three hours in the heat, salty snacks, and pickle juice. ▶ 30:00 · ▶ 18:00

Beer? On a trip, one beer in the evening won't hurt. In a race, save it for the end. ▶ 35:05

Heat: soak a bandana or your helmet at every tap. You can wet your body too, but not your feet: wet feet for hours do damage. ▶ 1:11:03 · ▶ 34:48

"The biggest enemy of progress isn't slow progress, it's stopping." Even pros spend almost 30% of their time stopped, without noticing. Better to ride slower and stop less. ▶ 57:20

One long stop a day, with a timer: 30–40 minutes, with "home-style" food. When the timer runs out, you leave, even if you don't feel like it. ▶ 59:20 · ▶ 25:30

Plan the stop an hour before you get there: know in advance what you'll buy, and when you arrive, look after the bike first: clean and lube the chain, air in the tyres, fill the bottles. Only then shop, and leave without going back to the bike. ▶ 1:02:13

Don't stop at every tap: learn the route and its water points in advance, and set off with enough to skip some of them. Every water stop also turns into a toilet, food and repair stop. But don't take too much either, because water is the heaviest thing on the bike. Collapsible water bags are good for long sections. ▶ 1:08:10 · ▶ 1:11:34

Riding as a pair or a group? Each rider stops at their own stops. If you also wait for other people's stops, you stop twice. Hanoch told of a race where he split from very strong riders just to get back to his own pace and stops. ▶ 1:01:55

The bike at a petrol station: Hanoch simply takes it into the shop with him, into a corner. And if you're alone, don't leave it outside to go to the toilet. ▶ 1:15:45

Don't fear the night. The night is when you make the most progress. Keep moving even if slowly, and if you don't see well in the dark, don't take risks. ▶ 49:12

Decide in advance how long to sleep, and set a loud alarm. If you can, put it out of reach, so you have to get out of your sleeping bag to turn it off. Sleeping 4–5 hours from one in the morning means setting off at sunrise. ▶ 50:36 · ▶ 55:55

When your eyes close, sleep. Cold, tired, and insisting on carrying on? That's where the mistakes that end in injury happen. ▶ 53:26

The pain will come, to everyone: palms, neck, shoulders, backside. Knowing it will happen helps you cope. ▶ 36:51

Keep changing your hand position ▶ 39:48:

• Aero bars, bar ends, ergonomic grips, or bar tape in the middle of the bars.
• Aero bars are for comfort, not speed. Set them high, so your neck doesn't change position. Hanoch raised his by 15 cm after a nerve injury, and you practise on them for a long time before the race.
• Set bar ends and grips at an angle parallel to the stem, and not too high.

Stand up: a beep every 5 minutes, and 30 seconds of pedalling out of the saddle. It takes the load off your backside. ▶ 42:47

"Whatever saddle and bibs you have – you'll end up with a baboon's bum."

Set your own expectations. Nothing is worse than failing to meet your own expectations, or what you think others expect of you. Ignore social media. Aim for what you're "worth" on a good day. ▶ 34:48

"When shit hits the fan." Something will go wrong, almost certainly. It isn't always the bike: an energy crash, seized muscles or a navigation mistake are breakdowns too. If you know in advance something will go wrong, you deal with it calmly, and so faster and better. ▶ 45:00 · ▶ 38:31

• For example: a tyre plug pushed in a hurry will come out later. A chain link fitted in a hurry will break again.
• Fell off? Don't jump up and carry on. Check yourself and the bike.

Hanoch's story: in one race his route file ran out and he was stuck for three hours at a petrol station until someone brought him a computer. Instead of getting angry, he invited his aunt for coffee, ate, drank and rested. "There's no lost time here that you can make up." ▶ 43:58

"All the crises I run into… they're not just randomness that 'ruins' my result – they are the experience itself."

Scratching is legitimate. Safety before results. Know in advance how you'll get back from every part of the route: train, bus or a lift. Tips: train and bus · Shuttle drivers

• Sleep, food, and a massage if you can. Numbness in your hands and feet after an effort like this happens. If it doesn't go away within a few days, see a doctor.
• Write down your lessons while everything is fresh: what worked and what didn't, which gear was unnecessary and what was missing, and which food did you good.