I agree ... but in this situation ... It looked to me, an ignorant observer, that Yates was losing steam and stopped when he reached Soler to let Soler pull. Otherwise, why let Yates leave Pogacer at all? Yates had been pacing Pogacer for a few kilometers already ... sending him ahead didn't have any benefit, particularly because Soler was already there, out ahead .... if Yates burned out (as apparently he did) going up to Soler, he would be less able to help Pogacer ... and if he just set a pace which Pogacer could hold (which he had been doing) he wasn't helping Pogacer any more by hanging there .... basically Yates had done all he could do for Pogacer. It was down to which of the top two had the legs on the day. Yates was no longer much a part of the equation ... IMO.

I agree, UAE would be happy if the whole team dropped out, so long as Pogacer won in GC. However .... in this situation, where Yates was not absolutely needed in the final km .....