France's Cyprien Sarrazin crowns breakthrough season with win at Kitzbuhel

French skier Cyprien Sarrazin crowned his breakthrough season in speed races Friday by winning the first of this weekend's two World Cup downhills on the storied Streif in Kitzbuhel.

Racing in cloudy conditions and struggling through technical turns on the icy and bumpy part of the 3.3-kilometre course, Sarrazin trailed then-leader Florian Schieder by up to 0.27 seconds before posting the fastest time in the last section to beat the Italian by 0.05.

World downhill champion Marco Odermatt was 0.34 behind in third, while Canada's Cameron Alexander, of North Vancouver, B.C., continued his strong season by finishing less than half a second back of Sarrazin in fifth.

"The goal here is to be on the top step of the podium," said Alexander. "I was close today and a top five in Kitzbuhel feels amazing. I focused on attacking the course today with good intensity and confidence and I'm happy with the result. I feel good coming into the race tomorrow."

Alexander reached the World Cup podium last month with a third-place finish at the downhill in Bormio, Italy.

"It was not the perfect run, not an amazing run, but I finished with my heart. I knew that I did some mistakes, I had to finish really fast. That's what I did," Sarrazin said.

WATCH | Sarrazin tops downhill at Kitzbuhel:

It was the Frenchman's fourth career win and second in downhill, after triumphing on the iconic Stelvio course in Bormio last month.

A former giant slalom specialist, Sarrazin had two career podiums in technical races coming into the season, but racked up five top-three results in speed events over the last three weeks, including a super-G victory seven days ago.

Odermatt, who briefly led the race until his time was beaten by Schieder, denied fourth-placed