2. Leads to 1. = 4. Compromises worlds and Lombardia.Hm, I think the Olympic road race has gained a lot of prestige since it's open for pros, it's not like when Pascal Richard won and nobody really cared. Mathieu Van der Poel did a Tour similar to the one in 2023. Why? In 23 preparing for Glasgow. What do you think he's preparing now? Zürich in 2 month? No, he's sacrificed Tour stage chances for the second year in a row, to be at the top in early August. So I wouldn't be too sure that all these 10 cyclists wouldn't trade a monument for the Olympics. A Giro or a Vuelta, different thing
Pogacar not going most likely 3 reasons, not necessarily in this order:
1 Tired
2 The route is not really for him, the plan probably was more to help Mohoric anyway
3 Girlfriend trouble
As for Zürich, I really don't see the route as all that favorable to him there either, seems a bit on the easy side, but we'll see.
3. Is just something that annoys him (and apparently most people