TBH, one of the pros of yesteryear, it *might* have been lemond, said that the best cyclist of our (being his) generation is probably smoking a packet of cigarettes a day and watching TV with a beer in his hand.
FWIW, my younger brother did a sports science degree and was tested for VO2max as part of a project, they repeated the test 3 times, with increasing levels of rigour and oversight from the course leaders until the decided that the machinery wasn't broken and he really *did* have a VO2 max of around 80. Most of the rest of his course (mostly those with some athletic intentions) were between about 50 and 70.
Though as a larger, beer drinking, cigarette smoking, 19 year old rugby prop, he never did bother exploring his potential in any sort of endurance sport and has been occasionally walking with a stick since his mid 30's.
These days they've have had him off the beer and ciggies and wired up on a treadmill within about 20 minutes.