Val d’Isere was the stage for the women’s downhill World Cup race this weekend. There were plenty of split-second surprises and bumps along the way, with favourite Lindsey Vonn (almost) crashing out early and Swiss star Lara Gut scoring the double.

Overall, Lara Gut enjoyed a faultless weekend in Val d’sere, beginning right from the start of the competition. After beating Lindsey Vonn by a fraction of a second to clinch the super-combined title on Friday, the Swiss followed with the downhill title, with Vonn not even in the frame.

Image courtesy of Snow Snow on Flickr under a Creative Commons licence.‏

After hopes of equalling Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell's record of 36 downhill wins, Vonn rode into a bump midway down the course, losing her balance but mercifully avoiding a potentially heavy fall. Her left ski flicked to the side and, despite somehow managing to stay upright, the missed seconds saw the American star out of the game and losing out on the downhill title this year.

With her main competition essentially out of the race, Lara Gut took full advantage, gliding straight into first place, with fellow Swiss, Fabienne Suter 0.16 seconds behind her and Canadian, Larisa Yurkiw coming in third.

Not unaccustomed to winning, this was Gut's 15th World Cup victory, which sees her hot on Lindsey Vonn’s heels at the top of the overall leaderboard: Gut sits at 478 points and Vonn just two points more with 480 overall.

Watch this space.