I sort of feel bad for Pozzato who effectively had no team to help him, but he still could have done more to help himself than a half-hearted acceleration on a descent. If he had attacked on one of the climbs, maybe enough people would have gone with him to create a split in the peloton in which some GC contenders were left behind. Then some teams would have been willing to work at the front and the break might have been caught. Not necessarily a likely scenario, but not completely far-fetched, either.