TL;DR Seixas going to UAE frees Tadej from obligation to ride the TdF.
When the rumors started swirling in the past few weeks about UAE pursuing interest in Seixas, I was pretty dismissive of it. For one, it was a pretty garbage story and mostly seemed like rumor fishing in that we had some quotes from someone at UAE that they would be interested in having Seixas (duh, every team would be interested in having a rider like Seixas). It just didn’t seem like there was much meat on that bone, and I have been getting tired of the story taking so much time on podcasts I listen to (including Spin Cycle). Aside from there not being much substance to the rumor, it didn’t make sense to me. UAE already has too many cooks in the kitchen. They have three riders who can win grand tours and several other ambitious riders who could be a race leader. Adding Seixas seems to only add to that problem and potentially increase discontent on both sides.
But… what if Seixas is Pogacar’s “Get out of TdF jail free” card? Tadej clearly has not enjoyed doing the Tour recently, even openly saying that he only does it because he has to (team and sponsor obligations). I could even see it being Tadej’s idea: “hey guys, this kid is super strong. I’ll commit to doing one more Tour full gas, if we bring him onboard and train him up to take over at the Tour.” There has been a lot of discussion the past couple of years about how to maintain Tadej’s engagement and motivation. He loves racing and clearly wants to be able to pursue the races and events that interest him the most (which he has said does not include more TdF). What if Seixas coming to the team frees Tadej from the burden of the Tour and allows him to fully create his own race program over a year?