as far as I can see, there’s no way that fitness developed pushing such thin tyres can possibly translate to mountain biking. Think about it, if you were say, training to lift huge weights, there’d be no point in say, doing power cleans with 5kg dumb bells, but in essence that’s what you’re doing with road cycling. As soon as you get on a mountain bike, your feeble road leg muscles will struggle to cope with bigger, heavier tyres.
I think you’re talking a load of tosh tbh. Training on the road bike can target specific weaknesses in fitness, unlike riding a mountain bike. For example increasing your FTP if you train with a PowerTap. Sure, you need to keep your skills in check, but its the same fitness. You can spend a much better hour of training on the road than the mountain bike I would say.
In fact, I would suggest that an averagely fit mountain biker would still have an edge over even a very strong roadie, maybe even a Tour rider.
Really?? Think about what you’re saying for a minute :roll: .
Yes you will get huge fitness gains from riding road, if you train smartly.