Switzerland’s Beat Feuz celebrated his birthday in style by winning the World Cup downhill on Saturday on the course to be used for the men’s alpine events at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Feuz, who thus reinforced his bid for the World Cup downhill title, clocked a time of 2min 14.10sec to finish 0.27sec ahead of Canada’s Benjamin Thomsen with Frenchman Adrien Theaux in third at 0.59.

Bode Miller, a critic of the technical top part of the run, had been expected to finish on the podium after a blistering start eventually petered out to a provisional third place finish.

However the American, starting with bib 21, was pushed off the podium as young Canadian Thomsen came home in second, prompting lively celebrations among his teammates at the finish.

Miller finished fourth at 0.61 behind Feuz and only 0.04 behind Theaux.

None of the Austrians who had shown race-winning potential during three days of training on the run got close to the podium.

Their top finisher was Joachim Puchner, who finished sixth at 0.74 adrift.

One pre-race contender, Christof Innerhofer, was among the victims of the icy, 3495-metre long Rosa Khutor course, the Italian losing a ski early on to see his victory bid shattered.

Early starter Erik Fisher meanwhile walked away from a crash which left him tangled in the safety netting.

Feuz’s second downhill win of the season, after claiming a prestigious win at Wengen in December, comes on the day he celebrates his 25th birthday.