Sestriere, France - Didier Cuche of Switzerland won the men's giant slalom in Sestriere Saturday for his first World Cup victory of the alpine ski season.

The 34-year-old veteran, who won the super-g at the world championships in Val d'Isere earlier this month, posted a combined time of 2 minutes 49.57 seconds to beat a trio of Austrians.

It was a ninth World Cup career win for Cuche who had led after the first leg and now moves to fifth in the overall standings.

Cuche's last World Cup victory was 13 months ago when he won last season's Kitzbuehel downhill.

Second was Stephan Goergl, 0.66 seconds behind, with Benjamin Raich third at 0.89 seconds and Romed Baumann at 1.05 seconds.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia leads the overall standings on 766 points, followed by Raich (740), Jean-Baptiste Grange of France (726), Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway (687) and Cuche (629).

Raich leads the giant slalom standings on 346 points, just 12 ahead of Cuche, with Ted Ligety of the United States, who failed to finish the first leg, on 241. (dpa)