The main advantageous feature of this material is it's elasticity, or it's ability to be stretched, or deflected by large amounts and then return to it's unloaded state with very little hysteresis, or energy losses, due to the deflection. Because of this property, the use of latex tubes in a bicycle tire tends to give the combination of tire and tube a lower overall rolling resistance as compared to the same tire with a butyl tube. Depending on the tire, the rolling resistance can be lowered by as much as 10-15%. This can result in a power savings of ~5W for a typical rider, which is not an insignificant amount. For example, over an Ironman distance bike leg (180 km) this would result in a time savings of ~1-1/2 minutes.