Vonn, who has already clinched the World Cup downhill title, finished second, only the second time she has failed to win a World Cup downhill in eight outings this season.

Riesch, who won the combined and slalom events in Vancouver, tore down the Kandahar in one minute 34.82 seconds, to finish nearly half a second in front of Vonn, the Olympic downhill champion. Anja Paerson of Sweden was third.

Vonn is now 225 points ahead of Riesch in the overall World Cup standings and the German admitted she had no realistic chance of catching up in the giant slalom, Super G and slalom events later in the week.

"There's no way I can make up more than 200 points," she told Reuters. "I would have loved to win the overall World Cup and I've fought hard all season.

"But I can't complain about my season, it was nice to win the downhill in front of my own crowd. I achieved what I wanted by winning the two medals.

"My main goal this week is to keep my slalom World Cup title. I was not so nervous before this downhill race."   Later, she told reporters: "It's never easy to ski with the pressure and expectation of your home crowd."   Vonn said she had no complaints.

"I made some mistakes, my line was not as clean as I was hoping and I'm glad for Maria that she won," she said.

"I haven't won it yet, there's still something to play for" she added.

"It's not finished yet, it's not likely that she will catch me but nothing's finished."
 

Meantime, Switzerland's Carlo Janka went back to the top of the overall World Cup standings by winning a thrilling downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in which 0.07 seconds separated the top four.

The Olympic giant slalom gold medallist beat Austria's Mario Scheiber by 0.02 seconds to set off a cacophony of cowbells and rattles among the Swiss fans and overhaul Benjamin Raich, who did not race, in the standings.   Erik Guay of Canada and Patrick Kueng of Switzerland finished joint third.

Janka's win meant Austria's men completed the season without winning a downhill race. Swiss Didier Cuche won the World Cup downhill category with a race to spare in Kvitfjell last Saturday.

Olympic downhill champion Didier Defago finished 13th, following his 14th place at Kvitfjell.

Janka is 54 points ahead of Austrian slalom specialist Raich with three races to go this week, all at Garmisch — the Super G, slalom and giant slalom.

"This is crazy, you surely need some luck to win that race with such a small margin," Janka, aiming to become the first Swiss to win the overall World Cup since Paul Accola in 1992, told reporters.

"My start number was definitely an advantage but to win you need a little bit of luck.

"This race was really tight and I was the lucky one when it came down to the hundredths. I knew I had to do well today because in the technical events, I'll be behind Benjamin.

"I didn't feel so fast in the upper part of the course so I fought harder at the bottom."   "I'll need to do well again tomorrow in the Super-G race because Raich can for sure score more points than me in the technical events.

Olympic super combined winner Bode Miller skipped the meeting because of an ankle injury he suffered during a team volleyball match at Val D'Isere earlier in the season.