Keith bontrager

The name Bontrager is synonymous with early mountain bike frames and, more recently, Trek’s in-house component range, and the legendary engineer now applies that same meticulous mindset to creating culinary masterpieces, including elaborate curries that would impress any Indian chef. The 68-year-old used to share a lot of food photos but now enjoys the process more without needing to chronicle it. It’s enough just to enjoy the meals with his partner, British former bike racer Julie Dinsdale, at their home in Santa Cruz, California. “I’ve been more of an urban cyclist for the past few years, but I never used to get too carried away with special pre-race meals. For endurance rides, what matters most is eating while you’re riding, which I was never that good at. Afterwards, almost anything tastes great. As a cook, there’s nothing simpler than feeding cyclists back from a big ride!

“Julie was hit by a truck seven years ago and lost her leg, so we came here, because it’s really hard walking around with a prosthetic in London. We tried a tandem, but she didn’t like me having control, so we got a Danish cargo trike and put an e-bike motor on it so she can ride down to the harbour, take the dog for a walk or take her paddling gear; she’s racing outrigger canoes now. Hopefully we’ll be riding together again sometime.

“We like to experiment with South Asian cooking. We have a curry leaf tree, which is a hard-to-get ingredient people in the south of India like to use, and we grow a lot of tomatoes. Fresh vegetables, some aromatics, a nice blend of spices and the right approach, and you always end up with something tasty. We don’t do meaty recipes often – the vegetarian versions are really good so it makes sense to just do that.

“One of our popular dishes is a simple tomato curry – tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and then a bunch of spices. You don’t have to be an expert if you get the spice mix right and the vegetables are fresh. I have a madras-style curry power that I use if I’m in a hurry, and t