It's about quickly reducing the Slovenian team and get them to chase. They don't have the manpower to make it an attritional race for the peloton.I honestly just don't see what more attrition achieves against the most attrition resistant rider in the peloton. Maybe hope you get into a steady state earlier and pace the full 6-7 hours better so Pogacar can't just pull back 5 minutes himself?
For pure attrition resistance, I think the only guy that might randomly surprise Pogacar may be Ben Healy. Pidcock and Ciccone coming out of the Vuelta and not from altitude does not help them IMO. Evenepoel looks way too big for the road race right now.