Marco Odermatt delivered a masterclass to claim victory in the men's World Cup super-G in Kitzbuehel on Friday, but the French pair of Alexis Pinturault and Florian Loriot were evacuated by helicopter after heavy crashes.

Under blue skies and a bright sun, the 27-year-old Odermatt consolidated his place atop the overall and super-G standings after timing 1min 13.25sec down the 2.1km-long Streifalm course.

The victory was Odermatt's 44th in the World Cup, and seventh this season. It was also his first in Kitzbuehel on a course regarded as the toughest on the circuit.

In a near-faultless display of aggressive skiing, Odermatt hit speeds in excess of 125km/h on the hard-packed, icy slope down the famed Hahnenkamm mountain.

Austria's Raphael Haaser took second, at 0.11sec, with Odermatt's Swiss teammate Stefan Rogentin rounding out the podium, a further 0.19sec adrift.

Odermatt scooped 100,000 euros ($104,800) for the win, with two further similar jackpots on offer for Saturday's downhill and Sunday's slalom at the upmarket Austrian resort.

"A big goal has been achieved," said Odermatt. "If you can leave Kitzbuehel as a winner, this is already a very good weekend.

"I'm very, very happy with the race today," he said, before adding: "My big goal is to win the downhill in Kitzbuehel."

Odermatt added: "It was a solid race from me. Others were faster in the individual sections, but I was ahead at the finish and that's what counts."

Super-G, he said, was "the most difficult discipline to have a perfect run from the first until the last gate".

In an ironic touch, the slopeside commentary team played Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a prayer" over the tannoy for Odermatt's descent.

The Swiss racer needed no such invocation, but admitted some pressure had been lifted before the boots go back on for the downhill, "especially after so many crashes today".

Racing was indeed marred by a series of crashes, coming just days before the February 4-16 World Ski Championships in Saalbach, Austria, as racers struggled with some tight course setting and rough conditions.

The worst seemed to be for Pinturault, the Frenchman hitting icy ruts -- worsened by heavy rain on Thursday -- that bucked him backwards and forced him, sliding, into the safety netting.

- 'Pintu' whisked off -

Pinturault, making his comeback after rupturing a knee ligament a year ago, got swiftly to his feet, but on-slope help rushed to his side and quickly unbuckled him from his ski bindings.

The three-time Olympic medallist then slumped to the snow and he was eventually moved onto a stretcher and evacuated by helicopter. Loriot then followed, seemingly having given himself a nasty faceplant at the same turn.

The French team clarified that Pinturault had suffered a "significant bone bruise on the medial tibial plateau, along with a small fracture and an injury to the medial meniscus".

He will be repatriated to France and has been ruled out of the world champs, the team said, adding that Loriot had suffered a concussion and would be kept overnight at the Sankt-Johann hospital.

Those two incidents for the French team came after the harrowing accident in Bormio suffered by defending Kitzbuehel downhill champion Cyprien Sarrazin, whose season was cut short after undergoing subsequent surgery to treat internal bleeding in his head.

"It is sometimes a dangerous sport," acknowledged Johan Eliasch, head of the International Ski Federation (FIS) and candidate for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee.

"People are pushing their limits, accidents happen. It's very unfortunate," he told reporters, adding: "It's not the speed so much... sometimes it's very bad luck."

Another skier not making it down the Streifalm was Italian veteran Dominik Paris, a three-time winner in the downhill here and a super-G champion in 2015.

Others failing to finish included Austrians Lukas Feurstein and Otmar Striedinger, Czech Jan Zabystran, Switzerland's Lars Roesti, American Sam Morse and two more Frenchmen in the shape of Nils Alphand and Matthieu Bailet.

Local skiing legend Franz Klammer, a four-time winner in Kitzbuehel, told Austrian broadcaster ORF that racing was "at the limit".

"The snow is very aggressive, the skis are very aggressive. We should pull the ripcord when it comes to injuries."

Home favourite Vincent Kriechmayr was a non-starter, opting out of the Kitzbuehel weekend after suffering a medial ligament strain in his right knee in Wengen last week.

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