This was the first World Cup in the slalom discipline during this campaign, and Noël produced runs of 44.51sec and 46.01 at the Stade Olympique de Bellevarde to earn him a total time of 1min 30.52sec.

All three athletes who finished on the podium collected their first World Cup medals of the season, with Sweden's Kristoffer Jakobsen and Filip Zubčić of Croatia placing second and third respectively.

Jakobsen clocked 45.32 and 46.60, finishing 1.40sec behind Noël, while Zubčić was another 0.45 back after matching the Swede's first run and producing a 47.05 on the second.

Switzerland's Daniel Yule and Britain's Dave Ryding just missed out on the top three, finishing 1.89 and 1.90 short of Noël respectively.

Marco Odermatt remains top of the overall standings after the weekend's skiing in Val d'Isère - the Swiss athlete picked up a second giant slalom victory of the season yesterday to move onto 446 points.

Matthias Mayer of Austria is second on 330, while Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has 229 in third.

Noël is now 11^th in the overall standings after picking up the maximum 100 points on the second day in Val d'Isère.

The ninth and 10^th events of the 36-leg men's circuit are due to be held at Val Gardena/Gröden in Italy on Friday (December 17) and Saturday (December 18).