Slightly facetious title but a serious question.
On my dumb trainer I’ll turn up the resistance and click down the gears until I have very little ‘momentum’ if I’m training for mid winter cyclocross. No point being able to spin away merrily if the reality of racing is that you’re churning through gloop at 60rpm.
Apart from going out in the real world to practice, then low cadence efforts are the closest you can get on a trainer.
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Pretty much the same way, except shift to a lower gear to minimize flywheel inertia and grind away at lower cadences. You could also do “coastdowns,” coast for 2-4 seconds, erg will kick up resistance, then accelerate back to your target wattage and cadence(like coming out a sloppy corner).
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Does erg allow this? I’m slightly curious about smart trainers but talk of the erg ‘death spiral’ leads me to wonder if they address the needs of the off road racer.
Just stick with your dumb trainer if it’s working for you. I’ve only tried erg once but I didn’t see any real advantage over my direct drive dumb trainer, power meter pedals and paying attention. Reading smart trainer reviews, I see a lot of potential disadvantages.
Low flywheel speed works great. Low cadence just means you really have to pay attention and not get behind.
It all varies with your power zones too. Higher power demands more attention.
If you are not keen on ERG, just swap to Resistance mode, set a high percentage and keep low gears too. More than one way to get it done.
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Erg ‘death spiral’ = legs not strong enough to turns pedals faster any more 
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So as long as you keep your cadence consistent then it can be anything? I see now. Cheers.
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