Didier Cuche won his second consecutive World Cup downhill as he claimed a comfortable victory at Chamonix.
Swiss veteran takes second consecutive downhill win
Didier Cuche won his second consecutive World Cup downhill as he claimed a comfortable victory at Chamonix.
The Swiss skier produced a brilliant technical performance to post a time of 1 minute 58.91 seconds, finishing 0.67s ahead of Italy's Dominik Paris.
Cuche won at Kitzbuehel last weekend and also finished second at Wengen a week earlier, but had not yet taken victory in the event known as the Kandahar during his career.
Klaus Kroell of Austria, who won at Wengen, finished 0.88s back in third place while his compatriot Georg Streitberger suffered suspected collarbone and knee injuries after a fall.
Manuel Osborne-Paradis was also the victim of a heavy crash in the final section of the course, with the Canadian flown to hospital with a broken fibula.
Paris was the first skier out of the gate and set a formidable benchmark that many of the big names could not come close to matching.
Kroell came the closest to dislodging the 22-year-old - although he still finished 0.21s behind - until Cuche produced his winning run.
The 36-year-old had to endure a 20-minute delay due to Osborne-Paradis' crash but was totally unfazed, as he was half a second up by the second time check and then flawlessly glided to the finish line.
