By USSA

HINTERSTODER, Austria – Tim Jitloff (Reno) is getting closer to dialing in the equipment issues he’s been struggling with the past few weeks. In Sunday’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom, he almost found the right combination, finished as the top American in 23rd.

“Today, I knew I wanted to come out and put together a solid day,” said Jitloff. “The first run was a step in the right direction.”

France’s Alexis Pinturault won his second-straight giant slalom – he also won Friday’s GS in Hinterstoder – in commanding fashion by 1.14 seconds over Austria’s Marcel Hirscher. Norway’s Henrik Kristofferson was third.

The past couple of weeks have been a struggle for the 31-year-old, six-time U.S. Champion as he has worked diligently to perfect his equipment set up. However, long training hours have taken a toll, physically and emotionally.

“The difficulties of the last two weeks and the effort that’s gone into trying to get things right, I just felt very tired,” Jitloff said after finishing 10th in Sunday’s first run, only to fall to 23rd after the second run. “It was an extremely long and turny course, and I just didn’t have the energy in that second run and unfortunately was quite slow.”

Jitloff was the only American to qualify for a second run. Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City), Mark Engel (Truckee), Kieffer Christianson (Anchorage), Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) and Samuel Dupratt (Dixon) didn’t make the top-30 first run cut. Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.), 29th in Friday’s GS, did not finish the first run.