BORMIO (Italy), Dec 29: US ski star Bode Miller got back to winning ways on Saturday by claiming his first World Cup victory of the season in the men’s downhill here.

The 30-year-old negotiated the notoriously difficult Stelvio piste in a time of 2min 00.57sec to take the gold ahead of Austrian Andreas Buder at 0.45sec with Canada’s Jan Hudec at 0.54sec.

Miller, the world downhill and super-G champion in 2005 at Bormio, notched up his 26th World Cup victory and first since his downhill success at Wengen, Switzerland, on January 13, 2007.

Among the favourites, Swiss Didier Cuche finished fourth at 0.66sec while an error left Austrian Michael Walchhofer outside the top 15 as he finished 1.80sec off the pace.

Walchhofer, winner of two downhill races this season, holds the World Cup lead in the discipline after four events. Austria’s Benni Raich maintains the overall World Cup lead after 15 of the 40 events. —AFP