kiwirider said:acoggan said:Not quite the hyperbolic statements you have credited to (Coyle), eh?From Coyle's paper:
These absolute values are higher than what we have measured in bicyclists competing at the US national level (9), several of whom subsequently raced professionally in Europe during the period of 1989–1995. The five-time Grand Champion of the Tour de France during the years 1991–1995 has been reported to possess a O2 max of 6.4 l/min and 79 ml·kg–1·min–1 with a body weight of 81 kg (28). Laboratory measures of the subject in our study were not made soon after the Tour de France; however, with the conservative assumption that O2 max was at least 6.1 l/min and given his reported body weight of 72 kg, we estimate his O2 max to have been at least 85 ml·kg–1·min–1 during the period of his victories in the Tour de France. Therefore, his O2 max per kilogram of body weight during his victories of 1999–2004 appears to be somewhat higher than what was reported for the champion during 1991–1995 and to be among the highest values reported in world class runners and bicyclists (e.g., 80–85 ml·kg–1·min–1)
... which sounds pretty similar to the summary that Digger gave ...
Not in the least. For example, Coyle uses words such as "...somewhat higher than..." and "...among the highest...", whereas Digger claimed that Coyle stated that Armstrong had the highest VO2max ever recorded.