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Swiss Didier Cuche made up for his Olympic disappointment when he clinched his third downhill World Cup title with a commanding downhill win in Kvitfjell, Norway.

Cuche, who left the Vancouver Olympics empty-handed last month, clocked a winning time of one minute 45.98 seconds on the Olympiabakken course to beat Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal by 0.47 seconds.

Austrian Klaus Kroell took third place, 0.57 off the pace.

Cuche secured the crystal globe by finishing ahead of his closest rivals, among them giant slalom Olympic champion Carlo Janka who was sixth after making mistakes on the upper part.

"Winning a World Cup title four years in a row is a proof of consistency," said Cuche, who had previously won the downhill World Cup in 2007 and 2008 and took the giant slalom trophy last season.

"It is just a pity that I did not perform well at the Olympics," added the Swiss, who finished sixth in the Olympic downhill in Whistler.

"I am very proud of winning here but I did not have revenge in my mind when I started this race."

Svindal, the super-G Olympic champion, said Cuche was simply too strong on Saturday.

"It was nice to ski on home snow in beautiful weather after the Games," he said. "Didier was unbeatable today."

Austria's Benjamin Raich, who ended more than two seconds behind Cuche, will start next week's finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, with a 70-point lead in the overall World Cup standings over Swiss Janka.

Olympic champion Didier Defago of Switzerland came home a disappointing 14th, according to provisional results.

The race was interrupted for some 15 minutes after Andrew Weibrecht crashed out on the upper part of the course but the American did not appear to have sustained serious injuries.

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