The 'they could but don't want to' is a very weird thing as well. Being that the mind game of success in any endeavor is not an incidental part. I've known some wildly fast guys over the years. The kind that show up in a scene, migrate over from some other sport and completely dominate a scene. i.e. Harvard rower shows up in NYC cycling scene and is instantly a 1 and the fastest guy around. But he drops out two seasons later to do something else. He just didn't want to do it. So was he really that awesome, or did he lack the critical mental component. You can toss someone's massive vo2 max number or power up there, but if it isn't applied to race situations it doesn't really matter.