VAL D'ISERE, France (AP) It was course specialist Marcel Hirscher vs. the home France team in the opening run of a World Cup giant slalom on Sunday.
Austria's Hirscher, who won four of the past five GS races at Val d'Isere, was .01 second faster than Mathieu Faivre on a calm, sunny morning.
Two more Frenchmen, Thomas Fanara and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, were the only other racers within one second of Hirscher's time of 1 minute, 11.62.
France team leader Alexis Pinturault was sixth fastest, with 1.08 to make up on Hirscher in the afternoon second run.
Pinturault won the season-opening GS at Soelden, Austria, where five-time defending World Cup overall champion Hirscher was second.
Ted Ligety of the United States was ninth, trailing by 1.37 on a course where he won in 2010.
