Why shouldn't EF and Uno X defend the positions of Healy and Johannsen. The teams and riders have worked hard to get into the position. They would be derelict in their duty if they do not chance.
It's more a problem of the UCI's points system that bottom end top 10 positions are that worth protecting which encourages negative racing rather than incentivising those guys from making gains - given his gains have largely been accumulated through doing what Jegat is doing now, but doing it better, I don't really get criticism of Healy here tbh. I understand why a top 10 should be protected here more than elsewhere (I'm more lenient at the Tour because of its higher importance to global sponsorship exposure etc.) but anything beyond that is pretty overkill, and the fact that the time gaps are pretty colossal down to where they are on the GC means it seems a bit ridiculous to be preserving - it's not so much like many races we've seen in the last 20 years where time gaps are a matter of under a minute at that part of the GC. The thing is that by and large, those are positions that do not need heavy domestique input to preserve because they are often able to be accumulated by the classic "fall backwards as slowly as possible" method where you can rely on the top GC riders' teams to defend.
And that these guys have been climbing better than Jegat and can be expected to pass him on Mont Ventoux again tomorrow, so it seems like an unnecessary expenditure of effort - much like Garmin trying to limit the break's gains in the stupid Pau stage in 2010 to prevent Chris Horner and Rubén Plaza threatening Ryder Hesjedal's 10th place, only for Hesjedal to completely outclimb them and others around him on the following MTF, since they'd been in the break over four major mountains the previous day, and end up finishing well ahead of both of them anyway.
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