Yeah, and they ended up with a much weaker roster for 2020 than they had had in 2019.As for only having about half a team signed for the following year at this point. Movistar only had around 15/16 riders signed for 2020 at the end of Sept 2019.
But EF can too if they want to?Except Movistar has the luxury of sending half the team up the road in breaks to go stage hunting if they want to.
It's not like Uran needs all the team around him. There has not been a single instance this race that he really needed his team. They are not the ones doing the work. They don't even keep Uran close to the front most of the time, let alone pulling the peloton. Stick Higuita with him in the mountains and Keukeleire on easier terrain and the rest is good to go.
EF was represented in every proper breakaway in this race so far. Even yesterday they had Martinez in a move in which Movistar was not represented IIRC.
Now that Carthy has lost time he can join the breakaway hunt too and they can hopefully give Bettiol a chance too on one of the hilly/medium mountain stages, he's in great form.