What might be an important measurement is the recovery rate. This is what the physician does with treadmill studies. They put you on a treadmill, easy first and then they ramp it up at various speeds for various times for each speed. Then they watch your heart rate go up and then push the speed up just a little bit more till the physician thinks its about max for you.

Then they take you off the treadmill and let you sit while the heart rate monitor is still running. After each minute in resting state, the measure your heart rate to see how many minutes it take the heart to go below a certain level.

Do you think many cycling coaches do that?