The opening men's World Cup downhill race produced a surprise winner at Val d'Isere on Sunday as Slovenia's Martin Cater won his first race on the circuit. The powerfully built Cater was taken aback that he had won and only celebrated after a long hard gaze at the clock. "I thought I was in the top ten or top 15 and I couldn't believe it when I saw I'd won," said the 27-year-old. Cater took 2min 04.67sec to swoop down the 3037m course on fast, compact snow in bright sunshine. Otmar Striedinger of Austria was also something of a surprise 0.22sec adrift in second, while Urs Kryenbuehl was third at 0.27. World Cup overall champion Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was fourth on the treacherous looking course on a day where the action was held up twice to take away injured fallers. The women's World Cup giant slalom race at French resort Courchevel was postponed at the last minute because of heavy overnight snowfall and has been rescheduled for Monday. ari-rg/clv/dmc