France's Sandrine Aubert opened her alpine skiing World Cup account with victory in the women's slalom here on Saturday in front of Sweden's Frida Hansdotter and Nicole Hosp of Austria.
American Lindsey Vonn, who leads the race for the overall title, posted the fastest time in the first leg but then crashed out in the second leg.
The double world champion's main rival for the Crystal Globe, Maria Riesch, finished fifth to capture the World Cup slalom title in front of her home crowd.
Riesch though has a mammoth task in the hunt for the main title as she is 371 points behind with the four remaining World Cup events of the season to come at Are in Sweden next week.
Aubert, who was lying third behind Vonn after the first leg, earned France their first slalom win since Laure Pequegnot in 2002 by beating Hansdotter by .43s and Hosp by .82.
This is a big first for me," said Aubert.
"I hope this will continue for a long time to come. I was in the same position (third after the first leg) at the world championships at Val d'Isere but it finished badly.
"I needed to learn a few things, how to manage (a good position). I've thought about it a lot and arrived at the conclusion that I had to calm down."
France team boss Jean-Philippe Vuillet said: "This isn't a real surprise, as Sandrine is known as someone with a big talent who up to this had difficulty performing over the two legs."
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
