VO2max of 99.5ml/kg/min and 440 Watt?

What’s possible and what’s unlikely to be possible: sportsscientists.com discusses the recent watt burst of the TdF winner at the Verbier climb.

… Antoine Vayer calculates that given Contador’s power output on that climb (which he calculates as 490W for a 78kg “normalized” rider – more on that later), and with one or two assumptions to turn that power output into oxygen consumption, Contador would be riding at 5.55 L/min. The problem with this is that it implies that Contador’s VO2max is about 99.5ml/kg/min!

Hematide? Aicar? No idea – there is an endless list of untested substances that will make the impossible possible.