{"id":495005,"date":"2026-03-25T19:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/495005\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:25:14","slug":"its-almost-12-years-since-i-quit-i-still-dont-regret-it-we-tracked-down-cyclings-lost-world-champion-and-vo2-max-record-holder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/495005\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s almost 12 years since I quit \u2013 I still don’t regret it’: We tracked down cycling’s lost world champion and VO2 max record holder"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Oskar Svendsen\u2019s friends dragged him to a science lab on his stag do last spring, they were amused to find the perfect set dressing for their escapade: his name was literally on the wall. The Oslo lab\u2019s poster \u2013 a list of all the highest VO2 max<\/a> scores ever recorded \u2013 laid it bare. At the top was Svendsen, beside the year 2012, with a number that still hasn\u2019t been surpassed: 97.5ml\/kg\/min. \u201cThe guy who does the tests said, \u2018Seriously, is that him?\u2019\u201d Svendsen laughs, recounting the story. Not only was it him, he was back for a retest \u2013 punishment for the stag.<\/p>\n

For the past 14 years since that record-breaking test, Svendsen has been a mythic character in elite sport. His tale is well-told, but little understood: the teenage cyclist who redefined the limits of human physiology, and then, two years later, vanished altogether.<\/p>\n

VO2 max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, a byword for cardiovascular fitness, and Svendsen still holds the record. Chris Froome<\/a> once tested at 88, Greg LeMond <\/a>92.5, while Tadej Poga\u010dar is thought to be around the 96 mark<\/a>. As the poster showed, nobody has beaten the young Norwegian\u2019s 97.5. Why, then, at just 20 years old and a junior time trial world champion, did he give up his cycling career? And where did he go?<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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\"Oskar\n<\/p>\n

Svendsen won the junior world time trial title in 2012 by seven seconds. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n

Cycling has seen no trace of Svendsen for more than a decade. So when his friends confirmed the identity of their stag \u2013 it really was him \u2013 the lab technician\u2019s eyes widened in disbelief. Everyone except Svendsen held their breath as he, hooked up the apparatus, began his all-out effort. But the result killed the drama dead. \u201cIt was a big disappointment,\u201d Svendsen laughs. There was no heroic repeat: his new VO2 max was \u201cembarrassingly low\u201d \u2013 so low, in fact, that he refuses to tell me the number. It was a fun stag-do caper, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Svendsen, speaking to me by video call, is sitting in a small office in Oslo. No longer a whip-thin pro cyclist, he\u2019s a well-built 31-year-old in a navy Carhartt shirt and dark, round glasses, his hair neatly parted down the middle. Behind him, a whiteboard spans the wall, covered in red-inked technical drawings: product designs for Auk<\/a>, a Norwegian startup that makes LED-powered indoor herb gardens. Svendsen is the company\u2019s head of supply chain. I found him on LinkedIn. His colleagues know about his cycling career, he says \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s sort of a fun fact\u201d \u2013 but he doesn\u2019t do many interviews about it anymore. Still, he remembers that record-breaking day in 2012 as if it were yesterday.<\/p>\n

Rapid rise<\/p>\n

Svendsen was 18 at the time. A former alpine skier, he had only begun cycling three years before, but adapted \u201cextraordinarily\u201d to the bike. \u201cI was part of a not necessarily VO2-focused training group, but we were super-focused on developing physical capacity,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were prioritising high-intensity exercises, instead of long-distance training or getting the hours in the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

This training pushed his FTP<\/a> (functional threshold power) to over 400 watts \u2013 around six watts per kilo, the level of a WorldTour pro. In VO2 max testing, he was closing in on the 90 mark. Then, in late August 2012, he returned a score that shocked the testers in his hometown of Lillehammer. \u201cThey fell silent because they thought there was something wrong with the test equipment,\u201d he says. The screen read 97.5 \u2013 a new world record. How did Svendsen react? \u201cI didn\u2019t care too much,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, \u2018OK, that\u2019s crazy. Another good test.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t understand the magnitude of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For the teenager, what mattered most was turning his physical talent into results. But doubts had already set in about a future in cycling. \u201cI was telling myself before the last year of my junior career, \u2018Either I take the next step, go to a Continental team to become a pro, or quit.\u2019 I kept it super binary,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His first real chance came a few weeks later, when he made his debut at the UCI World Championships. The course for the junior time trial \u2013 a lumpy 27km route into the Dutch town of Valkenburg \u2013 suited him, and he won the rainbow jersey by seven seconds, ahead of Slovenia\u2019s Matej Mohori\u010d<\/a>. \u201cThe decision was taken [for me],\u201d he says. \u201cI was actually a bit stressed about winning [the world title], because I was like, \u2018Shit, now I have to do it another two years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Oskar\n<\/p>\n

The world champion at 18 years old. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Svendsen signed for Team Joker, Norway\u2019s top Continental team. \u201cIt was the natural next step to become a pro,\u201d he says, but the first months of 2013 were patchy. \u201cI sucked in those Continental races that we did in central Europe.\u201d Of his first six events, Svendsen failed to finish four. His doubts resurfaced, but were pushed aside by a breakthrough August: three stage top 10s, and a top-five overall finish at the Tour de l\u2019Avenir<\/a>, the calendar\u2019s biggest under-23 race.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

As he opened his second season, in 2014, Svendsen set his racing ambitions \u201chigher and higher\u201d. \u201cThen it came to the Giro della Valle d\u2019Aosta, and I just remember I couldn\u2019t take the heat. I had one good stage, but nothing more,\u201d he says. On the brink of giving up, he gave himself an ultimatum for his Tour de l\u2019Avenir return: if he got a good result, he\u2019d commit to cycling. If not, he\u2019d leave the sport.<\/p>\n

Svendsen began the race with an underwhelming 118th place in the prologue, and quickly faced a battle to break back into the general classification. \u201cThen it came to the Queen stage, and I went down because of someone losing their bottle,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThat was it. I realised I couldn\u2019t catch up with the front group, and it was over.\u201d He rolled in 71st overall on the final day, and has not pinned on a number since.<\/p>\n

No regrets<\/p>\n

In the months after the race, many people tried to convince Svendsen to change his mind. But he knew that to be a pro cyclist \u201cyou have to go 100% into it, full gas, and [give it] everything you have\u201d. It was a lifestyle that just didn\u2019t appeal to him strongly enough \u2013 he didn\u2019t want to spend 1,000 hours a year in the saddle or surrender his social life. \u201cThe question was: what are my 20s worth? My opinion was that I couldn\u2019t [continue as a cyclist], because those years were limited. There was no price on those years.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask Svendsen if he has any regrets about quitting the sport. He pauses, thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. \u201cIt\u2019s almost 12 years since I quit,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t regret it \u2013 and I still don\u2019t.\u201d He remembers a meeting with a mental coach at Team Joker. \u201cHe always told me to look 10 years ahead: \u2018Where are you in 10 years? What does your life look like?\u2019 And I always said, \u2018I\u2019ll probably work in some company\u2019.\u201d The coach then asked: if he stayed in cycling for two more years, would that future look any different? Or would it just be two years less in that job? Svendsen always thought of it as the latter.<\/p>\n

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\"Oskar\n<\/p>\n

Svendsen is the head of supply chain for indoor herb garden company Auk.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Christoffer Jellum)<\/p>\n

Today, Svendsen lives in Oslo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter. His rainbow jersey from 2012 is in a frame in the attic \u2013 \u201cmy wife doesn\u2019t allow me to have it in the living room,\u201d he laughs. He still keeps active, mountain biking, running and skiing \u2013 the day before our call, he was out on the slopes in -15\u00b0C \u2013 and he still follows pro cycling. Many of his old training friends and coaches are now at Uno-X<\/a>, the Norwegian WorldTour team. Had the team held its top-tier status 12 years ago, it might have been \u201cthe perfect match\u201d for him \u2013 but it\u2019s a what-if he doesn\u2019t linger on.<\/p>\n

In his first year post-cycling, Svendsen enrolled for a master\u2019s degree in engineering and ICT at NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He liked the idea of building companies, and studying, he reasoned, would give him the \u201cbest toolbox\u201d for a career doing so. He finished his degree, joined Auk after he graduated, and has now been at the startup for four-and-a-half years. \u201cI came in at a good time,\u201d Svendsen says, clearly enthusiastic about his work. \u201cWe were five or six employees, and we started in a small office in Oslo, trying to make the [indoor herb garden] product and get it out to the customers. Now, we\u2019re soon to be 25 people, and we\u2019ve gone from \u20ac1m in revenue to \u20ac25m, selling more than 170,000 units worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

His job sits proudly at the top of his LinkedIn profile. At the bottom, distilled into four throwaway sentences, lies the cycling past he left behind: \u201cProfessional athlete \u2013 road cycling. Jan 2013\u2013Dec 2014. Junior World Champion Time Trial. VO2 max record holder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why VO2 max matters \u2013 but isn’t everything<\/p>\n

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\"Oskar\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

VO2 max<\/a> is a person\u2019s maximum rate of oxygen uptake during intense exercise, measured in ml\/kg\/min. It is determined by a combination of factors including heart size and stroke volume, lung capacity, haemoglobin levels, and mitochondrial density \u2013 in short, how efficiently the body can deliver and use oxygen.<\/p>\n

Elite endurance athletes typically have a VO2 max value in the mid-70s to the high-80s, with only a few outliers exceeding 90. Cardiovascular capacity declines with age, so while a lab-tested 60ml\/kg\/min is a good score for an amateur cyclist in his 30s, 50ml\/kg\/min would be equally impressive by the time he reaches his 60s. (The estimates provided by smartwatches<\/a> and fitness apps, by contrast, are derived from heart-rate algorithms and should be treated as rough approximations rather than true measurements.)<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years after I quit cycling, I quickly realised that my [97.5ml\/kg\/min] VO2 max was a greater achievement than winning the World Championships,\u201d Oskar Svendsen jokes. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s still very relatable for a lot of people.\u201d Though Svendsen was a strong cyclist, his story shows a high VO2 max does not guarantee results. Race craft, bunch skills, and mentality are equally as important, he says. \u201cTalent is more about grit and the ability to perform over time. The physical [aspect] is a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, is he surprised nobody has beaten his record? \u201cYes, I am,\u201d Svendsen says. \u201cYou have [Christian] Blummenfelt, the Norwegian [triathlete, a former Olympic champion]. I think he did almost the same numbers, but he\u2019s much heavier, so if he matched the weight, he probably would have outperformed it.\u201d (In January, Blummenfelt shared an image on Instagram suggesting he had recorded a 101.1ml\/kg\/min; however, the score is yet to be verified as accurate.)<\/p>\n

This feature first appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 26 February 2026. Subscribe now<\/a> and never miss an issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Oskar Svendsen\u2019s friends dragged him to a science lab on his stag do last spring, they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-495005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}