Liberec, Czech Republic - Jean-Marc Gaillard of France beat local hero Lukas Bauer to claim his first career win in the cross-country skiing World Cup on Saturday. Gaillard, 27, clocked 28 minutes 1.3 seconds in a freestyle race shortened from its original distance of 15 kilometres to 11.4km as lack of snow allowed the preparation of only one loop of 1.9km. The Frenchman had not climbed a World Cup podium before Saturday.
The World Cup leader and Tour de Ski champion Bauer trailed by 12.1 seconds on 28:13.4 minutes in the host resort of the 2009 world championships. Christian Hoffmann of Austria was third on the podium in 28:23.1 minutes.
Bauer stretched his lead atop the World Cup standings with now 996 points ahead of German Rene Sommerfeldt, who has 643 points from a 12th-place finish. Norway's Tor-Arne Hetland is third with 576 points.
In the women's race over 7.6km instead of 10km, Norwegian sprint world champion Astrid Jacobsen clocked 20:54.6 minutes for her second season. Justyne Kowalczyk of Poland was just 0.4 seconds behind on 20:55.0 and Swedish Tour de Ski champion Charlotte Kalla was third on 21:01.6 minutes.
World Cup leader Virpi Kuitunen of Finland failed to earn points by finishing 38th, her tally of 979 staying unchanged. Kalla drew closer with now 890 points and Jacobsen is also in contention on 870.
Team sprints are scheduled for Sunday in Liberec.
