VAL D'ISERE, France (AP) Frenchman Alexis Pinturault dominated the icy Face de Bellevarde course Saturday to post the fastest time in the first leg of World Cup giant slalom.
Despite severely bruising his right hand in a training fall on Thursday, Pinturault was .65 seconds ahead of Stefan Luitz of Germany and .67 clear of five-time defending overall World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher of Austria. The second run is later Saturday.
The French are proving hard to beat in GS.
Last weekend, also in Val d'Isere but on a different course, Mathieu Faivre won and four of the top five were French, with Pinturault in third place behind Hirscher.
Hirscher has already lost to two Frenchmen in defense of his GS trophy after being runner-up to Pinturault in the season-opening race at Soelden, Austria.
