By USSA

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia – David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, Colo.) came out of the 58th start position to finish as the top American in 26th at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom Friday. Tommy Ford (Reno) continued his string of top 30s, finishing 27th in the weekend opener, which replaced the canceled event from Garmisch.

“First run, I’m happy,” Chodounsky said. “I started in the back and felt like I skied well … aggressive. But then I completely over-skied the second run. It skied so much easier that I thought it would.”

Alexis Pinturault of France made the course look real easy, winning his fourth-straight World Cup giant slalom by 0.47 over Austria’s Philipp Schoerghofer. World Cup overall and giant slalom leader Marcel Hirscher of Austria was third. Hirscher increased his overall World Cup lead to 293 points over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, who finished fourth Friday. Pinturault’s victory moved him into second in the overall World Cup giant slalom standings, just 91 points behind Hirscher.

Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City), Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.), Tim Jitloff (Reno) and Kieffer Christianson (Anchorage) did not qualify for the second run.