Yates was trying to drop Haig but wasn't strong enough to do it.
MAL for some reason decided that trying to play poker with Roglic was a better bet than just attacking and hoping Roglic is on a bad day.
I mean I'd say Yates was physically strong enough to drop Haig and he had but he wasn't prepared to risk going into the red to actually finish it off. If he continued it the chances of him winning the stage would drop a lot as he wasn't beating Roglic, but he could have dropped Haig there (although tbh I'm not sure he could pull back enough to pass Haig anyway)