points on the day . Since only have two riders , Team USA was scored for every ride , unable to take advantage of the dropped ride allowance . Hoover and Sweeten gave it their all , but with loop scores of 53 and 46 points respectively , they finished seventh of eight teams .
“ It was a really good day ,” said Hoover . “ Lots of fun racing out in the woods with all the different countries . Kylee had some excellent rides today , and I had a couple of good rides myself . I ’ m feeling pretty good about a couple of them , but there are some mistakes that I want to go home and fix . This was such a fantastic opportunity , and I ’ m excited for next year .”
“ Today was a long and tough day for the US Women ’ s team ,” said Sweeten . “ We had some solid rides and gave it our all ; we just had some unfortunate fives and some silly things that happened that put us out , but we had a lot of fun and we ’ re still honored to represent our country .”
Looking to repeat their third-place podium finish from 2019 was Team USA in the International class . Due to continually changing COVID restrictions , the team had a late start to practice , only getting the green light a few weeks before the competition . Luckily , the competitors arrived in Portugal before additional vaccination
VOL . 6 ISSUE 11 - NOVEMBER 2021 // PAGE 81