I might have missed something significant about a bucket list, Tour Down Under and Tadej but words and actions say that he wants to start as late as possible, 2 out of last 3 years in March and in 2025 he had to meet team \ national \ sponsor obligations by racing at UAE. TDU was semi problematic because of heat so maybe moving it earlier is better.
This year with all the Del Toro hysteria, Isaac was able to go to UAE tour, win for the UAE team and sponsors and fans, racing public thought they saw a quality racer win. I don't think that Tadej wants to do UAE tour or TDU.
Pogacar is saying he wants to do less, not more.
Semi moronic move by Del Toro to run around Italy racing into October, but his reality was a little different, he needed to train, keep his form for Mexican national races, which he won. Tadej has already put Del Toro on his TDF team and depending on how things unfold, Isaac might be given some space to try for a stage. With Bora, Visma, Decathlon, Trek all ever improving, the idea that Pogacar will have an easy TDF is really questionable.
*** and just speculation but Tour of Oman, UAE, Alula, other races in the region are certainly not guaranteed to take place next year***
Pogacar schedule is Romandie..wait @3 weeks do Suisse, wait 2 weeks do TDF...
If he wins his 5th TDF no telling what he will do with the rest of his racing season.
*** in my opinion UAE tour is not big for the riders it's big for Team UAE***