One thing about carbon fiber construction is that it can be engineered to have just about whatever characteristics the designers want. For most of the last 30 years I have worked around engineers working with airplane parts made from unidirectional graphite tape (aka carbon fiber). Over the years, the design software has become more and more sophisticated. It is amazing to watch them playing around with various ply patterns and analyzing the resulting strength, rigidity, flexibility etc. We are in a manufacturing rather than design environment, but still I have had some exposure to the design process and it is quite impressive. The demands for supersonic military aircraft and commercial aircraft carrying countless passengers are in most ways far beyond what is needed for bicycle frames, but there are similarities. The stuff is not nearly as fragile as some would have you believe.