Larsson blames the slop

"Everybody who raced before me failed so I knew it was going to be hard. I watched the races on TV and I got reports of the slop," Larsson said.

"There's not much to say. It's an outdoors sport and sometimes these things happen."

After a scorching second run Berthod saw off 26 competitors with better opening runs, including Sunday's final skier Larsson, to claim his first-career World Cup win.

"I knew it was going to be hard to win," said the Swedish technical specialist, who was going for his second slalom win of the season but ultimately dropped down to fifth place.

"I was going for a victory and it looked good after the first run, but it just didn't work out in the end."

Larsson will next compete at Wengen's World Cup this weekend.