Several buses away, Cancellara said, “Racing like that, I’m sure, Evans will never win the Tour.”

Evans, a two-time Tour runner-up, cannot seem to get a break at this Tour  or in past ones. He came into this race as one of the favorites, but now he is a long shot.

On a team much weaker than Cancellara’s Saxo Bank or Lance Armstrong’s Astana, Evans is in 18th place after 9 of the 21 stages. He is 3 minutes 7 seconds behind the race leader, Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy.

But struggling to win, and often coming close, has been the story of Evans’s career.

For the past three years, Evans has finished second at the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, a race many riders use as a tuneup for the Tour. Even as a young rider growing up in Australia, Evans had great success in mountain biking and road cycling. But, he lamented Monday during an interview, he always seemed to miss out on the biggest prize.

“I have one third, one second, one third, one fourth and another third,” he said, naming the world championship medals he won as a junior and under-23 racer. “All together, I have seven world championship medals, but none gold.

“It’s frustrating. It’s hard to handle when you always come so close to winning but never do it.”

Evans, 32, who is one of the best road cyclists in the world, can be intense on and off the bike. He has head-butted a television camera and screamed at a fan who nearly stepped on his beloved dog, a small mixed-breed named Molly, “Don’t step on my dog, or I’ll cut your head off!”