Why an American team at the Tour de France bought its leader 21 of the world's fastest bicycle chains

ARCALIS, Andorra, July 12 — Every second counts in the Tour de France, and so does every watt.

The 1989 Tour underlined that fact when after three weeks, 2,041 miles, and 87 hours, 38 minutes, 35 seconds of racing American Greg LeMond won by eight seconds. That time was thanks in part to LeMond's use of aero bars, at the time a new technology in pro cycling.

Another example can be seen in the efforts made by the US-based Cannondale-Drapac team, which has done what it can to ensure that its leader, Pierre Rolland, performs his best. Like LeMond, the team looked to the latest advances in technology.

So in addition to modernizing Rolland's training program — team boss Jonathan Vaughters observed that Rolland had been "training like it was 1975" before joining Cannondale-Drapac— the team has purchased state-of-the-art cooling mattress toppers from ChiliPad and bought 21 specially treated chains and rear-derailleur pulley systems from CeramicSpeed. Here's what they are all about:

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This is Pierre Rolland's custom-painted Tour de France Cannondale SuperSix Evo fitted with a CeramicSpeed UFO chain and pulley system. The "UFO" stands for Ultra-Fast Optimized. He is the only rider on his team given this chain, and he is the only rider in the Tour de France with it too, as far as we could tell.

The chain is covered with Teflon powder, which helps reduce friction.

Every day the mechanics put a new chain on Rolland's bike.