If Floyd Landis, leader of the Phonak team, wins the three-week Tour de France, a popular bike race, it will be a victory for nanotechnology too! For the race, Landis is riding a bike that has been enhanced with carbon nanotubes. Since carbon nanotubes sprinkled into materials can help reduce weight and provide additional strength, the bikes ridden by the Phonak team have nanotubes swirled into the frame. As a result, the frame of the BMC Pro Machine SLC 01 weighs less than a kilogram (that’s 2.2 pounds!), making it one of the lightest frames in the race. Nanotubes were developed in the early ’90s, and are essentially cylinders of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons that look like spools of chicken wire under a microscope. Their unique structure gives the tubes special properties. For example, nanotubes are several times stronger than steel and much, much lighter. Nanotubes can also conduct electricity, act as insulators, and transfer light signals. But currently, the main use of carbon nanotubes is to strengthen and reduce weight in retail items, such as cars, golf clubs, tennis rackets, and bikes!