Ligety claims second W. Cup giant slalom win

Ligety had dominated the first leg with a 0.26sec lead on Norwegian all-rounder Aksel Lund Svindal and maintained his composure in a storming second run to keep Svindal in second place at a massive 1.05sec behind.

Italian Massimiliano Blardone was third at 1.2 behind Ligety, the Olympic combined champion from Turin in 2006 who thus claims his seventh career victory in the series.

Ligety now has a perfect 200 points from the two giant races held so far. He opened his account by winning at Beaver Creek in Colorado last weekend.

"It's definitely nice to get two wins in a row. I've had a lot of podiums, but not a lot of wins," said Ligety.

"It's a nice little confidence booster for the start of the season."

Buoyed by his sixth World Cup win last week, Lady Luck smiled on the flamboyant American when he was drawn to start third from the field in the first run.

That early start allowed Ligety to attack the piste when it had not yet been chewed up, and his first leg display stood the test of time as a host of fellow contenders struggled to tame the steep pitches, sweeping turns and sheer length of the Bellevarde run.

France's Jean-Baptiste Grange and American Bode Miller failed to finish the first run after running into trouble at the early gates, while Austrian contenders Benjamin Raich and Marcel Hirscher kept in contention after finishing 1.22 and 1.12 behind Ligety respectively.

Austria's hopes were to later evaporate in an unforgiving second run that left most of the field struggling to stand at the finish area.

Carlo Janka produced one of the top five times of the second run to take the provisional lead, but Raich, who was next to race, could then only finish second at 0.11 behind the Swiss.

With a further four racers, Raich's medal chances looked slim.

Hirscher was next up and looked all set to barge his way into contention but despite owning a 1.01sec lead on Janka at the final time check the young Austrian skied off course, had to redress and lost all his advantage to finish provisional third at 0.22.

Janka finally lost his lead to Blardone, but the experienced Italian spent only moments in the hot seat as a shaky, yet effective performance by Svindal gave the Norwegian top spot.

"I knew I wasn't really in contention for victory, but this is a good test for me, especially on such a difficult hill," said Blardone.

Ligety was 0.36 faster than Svindal at the first time check, and kept his cool to increase that to 0.96 then 1.05 at the finish.

Svindal could only concede defeat, but said Ligety's giant-winning skills would not be insurmountable.

"He's been (racing) very clean, with no big mistakes. It's hard to get those good results without making mistakes," said Svindal, who now leads Ligety by 15 points in the World Cup overall standings.

"I'm impressed, very impressed, but I don't think he's unbeatable."

Val d'Isere will also host the second slalom of the season on Sunday, where Grange -- the winner at Levi, Finland last month -- will look to make amends.

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