Deposed race leader Cadel Evans rode the ninth stage of the Tour de France with a fractured left elbow, as his hopes of a win all but disappeared.
Evans lost the yellow jersey and dropped down to 18th position in the overall standings - 7min47sec behind new leader Andy Schleck - after finishing Tuesday's gruelling 204.5km stage in 42nd place.
VIDEO: Evans explains his disastrous stage 9
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Max Testa, BMC's chief medical officer, says Evans has "a small fracture" and that "even the team-mates didn't know it was broken".
Evans sustained the injuries in Sunday's eighth stage, when he captured the yellow jersey.
The 33-year-old Australian now has virtually no chance of winning the Tour, or even matching his two runner-up finishes.
Evans finished 8min9sec back from ninth stage winner Sandy Casar and broke down after the finish, burying his head in the hug of a team-mate and sobbing.
"Everyone who believed in me in this whole project - you know, everything was going so good - I'm just so sorry to let them all down," he said.
Testa said BMC staff didn't tell the team about the "painful" injury so as not to disrupt "the morale of the team".
Schleck finished seventh in the stage, two seconds behind Casar and alongside two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador.
Evans was dropped on the fabled Madeleine pass and lost more than eight minutes on Schleck and Contador.
Casar led a sprint among seven breakaway riders at the finish of the 204.5km trek from Morzine to Saint-Jean-La-Maurienne - the second and final day in the Alps containing three tough climbs.
The Francaise des Jeux rider collected his third career stage win at the Tour, blazing ahead of Luis-Leon Sanchez in second and Damiano Cunego in third - all three riders clocking 5hr38min10sec.
"It's pure happiness," the 31-year-old Casar said. "I wanted it so much it couldn't have happened any other way."
Contador and Schleck have now set the stage for a two-man fight for the title.
Schleck leads his Spanish rival by 41 seconds, while Spain's Samuel Sanchez - who finished eighth, 52 seconds back - jumped to third and trails the leader by 2:45.
For a while, it looked like Luis Leon Sanchez, who entered the day in 20th place - 5:03 back of Evans - might take the yellow jersey. The Caisse d'Epargne leader was among 12 cyclists who broke away and had a lead of roughly six minutes on the pack about two-thirds of the way through the stage - but before the Madeleine.
That was when Schleck and Contador engaged in a dramatic duel about midway through the punishing climb, with the Luxembourg rider attacking on several occasions - but unable to shake the Spaniard.
At the top of the Madeleine, with a long descent ahead, Contador, Schleck and Samuel Sanchez trailed about 2:10 back of a small group of breakaway riders. By the foot, they trailed by only about 1:40, and continued to gain on the escapees in the 13km flat to the finish.
"I think he and I are a little above the others," Schleck said of Contador. "I didn't put time on Contador, but he couldn't drop me either."
Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong fared relatively well as many other riders dropped off the title contenders on the Madeleine - one of the toughest climbs in cycling.
The US rider finished 18th, 2:50 behind Casar, to rise to 31st in the standings but losing time in the overall title chase at 15:54 behind Schleck.
The peloton faces three medium- to high-level ascents in Wednesday's 10th stage, a 179km ride from Chambery to Gap.
