Authenticity

Yeah yeah, it's taken ages to get an update and I'm sorry. Very sorry in fact. Without stewing on that and without surprise, what I've come up with has to do with food and riding bikes. As found on Velocio, check it. At dinner last night, I went with the cacio e pepe. Literally translated “cheese and pepper”, there are meant to be just three ingredients on the plate — cheese, pepper, and pasta. The salty Pecorino Romano cheese delicately melts as it’s grated over a swirled cloud of pasta. The tangy characteristics of the creamy sheep’s milk are accented by the crushed black pepper. The piquant spice of the pepper contrasts not just on the palate, but visually on the plate. It seemingly floats before you as a petite pillow of off-white pasta with flecks of deep black pepper. Cacio e pepe is an easy dish to create. The execution of ratios, timing, and delivery, however, make it incredibly difficult to perfect.I raced for a quintessentially Italian team nearly half my professional career and the culture permeates everything. Italian culture envelops you — you don’t check in and check out on a casual whim, rather you live it every moment of the year. It’s an austere existence, that of a professional cyclist, so you’re not basking in sinfully rich Fettuccini Alfredo night after night. That said, it’s truly amazing to witness the mountains of perfectly al dente pasta hidden beneath a half-wheel of grated cheese that we vacuum down. With freshly cracked pepper, ovviamente.There are celebratory occasions at Olive Garden and over bowls of SpaghettiO’s. Ride to eat, eat to ride, it’s said. There’s certainly nothing wrong with either of these, as there’s a time and place for everything. Yet given that cuisine is so integral in cycling, there’s a distinct authenticity in simplicity.Here is the principle of Occam’s Razor at play, stating, “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” Shed the excess, the redundant, the unessential. If you know anything about me, you’re likely familiar with my distinct fondness for maple syrup. Pure maple syrup. A single ingredient. From a tree. While I don’t mean to bring up food in just every paragraph here, the genius of maple syrup as sports nutrition lies in its simplicity. Rather than a heavily processed carbohydrate that’s then artificially flavored, supplemented, and colored, maple syrup is naturally loaded with the electrolytes, amino acids, and antioxidants providing it the categorical title of a Superfood. Sure, it has heartwarming connotations around the familial Sunday morning breakfast table, but maple syrup is healthy precisely because it’s not chemically altered nor poured out of a plastic bust of some non-extant Aunt. Simple is pure. Simple is good.The same simplicity drew me to Velocio. There was a natural gravitation to the brand precisely because of their noticeable lack of superfluity. Clean, bold, beautiful lines characterize Velocio’s design with tremendously well thought out construction. They don’t preach fashion over function, nor function over fashion. Rather, everything in the clothing has a specific purpose, and it’s translated elegantly such that the genius is in its simplicity.There are Mario Batali bastardized versions of cacio e pepe that include a pound of butter and half gallon of cream, but when properly executed the three ingredients amalgamate on one’s plate into something etherial. The fewest ingredients is the most pure. The simplest explanation is generally the correct one. The lack of excess makes something real. Makes it authentic.