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Trail riding does not improve endurance and fitness. Pushing hard for 30 minutes on a moto track improves fitness. Riding 50+ miles on a mountain bike or road bike improves fitness. Dicking around in the desert does not improve fitness.
No one has cited a single example of a present-day pro riding trails specifically for the purpose of improving fitness. It's all one-off, for fun stuff. Zach Osborne raced GNCC because he retired from motocross. He does not ride trails to improve his motocross fitness. Aaron Plesinger started out as a GNCC racer. He made the switch to motocross later than most pros do. His Dad was an enduro champion. He grew up riding in the mud, which is why he's excels at racing motocross in the mud.
Again, no current pros specifically "cross-train" on trails and desert for the purpose of improving their fitness. It would be a waste of time. They ride miles on the road and on mountain bikes and multiple 30 minute motos in addition to gym time.
Riding trails does not improve and/or enhance motocross fitness. Riding motocross improves motocross fitness. And not just riding motocross - but pushing the intensity while you ride motocross. Most people just go spin a few laps at their local track and call it good. You should be hurting afterwards if your intention is to improve fitness.
Riding offroad for fitness won't help the top pros nearly as much as it will help us (their fundamentals are already on point, they are already in incredible shape so it minimizes the benefit)...but they aren't us...for the average weekend warrior, it has a ton of benefits.
Go out in the desert/hills/trails, put together a single track loop and ride that thing as hard as you can, as fast as you can...do it for an hour...then come back and let me know if it helps or hurts your fitness (heck, even do it for 30 minutes). It presents an entirely different set of challenges you don't see often on a moto track, training your brain to deal with those challenges, in addition to the fitness will pay dividends on the track.
Most offroad races are 1-3 hours long...you don't think pushing yourself and riding a race pace that long will benefit someone trying to ride a moto track at race pace for 4 laps? Come on bro...
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