Differences in VO2 Max - How big is the gap?

[KWcycling]

@ZHVelo

Can’t be bothered to find it now, but there is good evidence that this isn’t necessarily true, because here you are comparing like for like.

When you compare between people, there are pros with lower Vo2s that simply have a naturally higher fractional utilization and there are some with higher Vo2s with a lower utilization. The very top are high on both.

We are both right depending on how your frame it. Youre talking about outliers. I agree there are outlier cases where somebody might utilize a very high percentage of their relatively lower vo2max. But if you are talking ‘on average’, then what I am saying is correct. I ‘fully trained’ person with 60 vo2 max is not going to be in the same ballpark as one with 70. These people are in a different class.

[ZHVelo]

I think we have different views on what “fully trained” means.

I agree that a Vo2 delta of 10 is pretty high, but two ‘fully trained’ athletes with a difference of 5 can very well perform similarly.