KANSAS CITY, Mo. (March 9, 2010) - Valdiron de Oliveira is a serious contender for the world title this year.
But the 30-year-old Brazilian lost a chance to win his third Built Ford Tough Series event of the season this weekend when he opted out of the short round in Kansas City after being slammed to the dirt in Round 3.
“It’s real easy at the end of the year, if you’ve just lost the World Championship, to look back at Kansas City and (ask), ‘Would I have done that differently?’” said Ty Murray, in his weekly audio blog.
“In any sport, you have capitalize on anything you can, because if you don’t, then there are a million ways you can look back at what cost you a championship.”
Oliveira, who recently won the Iron Cowboy Invitational, has been competing with a bruised shoulder.
While other top-ranked riders have ridden through nagging injuries with little public drama, the same can’t always be said of Oliveira.
“One thing I do see with Valdiron is he seems to wince after he gets off of every single bull,” Murray observed. “It’s almost just what he does.
“We see all the guys who have all the celebrations, dances or little signature moves, and Valdiron’s signature move is a big ol’ wince every time he gets off of a bull.”
Murray said he’s not questioning Oliveira’s ability or toughness, just sharing a personal observation.
Team Brazil captain Adriano Moraes named Oliveira and Robson Palermo as the first two members of his 2010 team on Saturday. Three more riders and an alternate will be named in the coming weeks.
It comes as no surprise that Oliveira would be among the first, considering he’s been the second-most consistent rider on the BFTS the past five years. Only Guilherme Marchi, who has been the anchor for the Brazilians the past three years, has a higher average (62.75 percent) than Oliviera (61.72 percent).
“I think Adriano will push him and will get the most that he can possibly get out of Valdiron,” Murray said, “because Valdiron does look like his anchor man.”
In the coming weeks, Moraes will also look at Marchi, Renato Nunes, Ednei Caminhas and perhaps an unknown Brazilian, like he did when he brought Oliveira to Australia for the World Cup in 2007.
Marchi is battling a sprained wrist and has dropped all the way to 16th in the world standings, whereas Oliveira was the in the top spot until he allowed Mauney to pass him this past weekend.
Murray admitted that because of the language barrier, Oliveira isn’t one of the riders he knows well, but the two have visited on occasion.
“It’ll be an interesting one to watch this year,” said Murray of the World Cup.
Murray’s entire 27-minute interview can be heard by logging on to www.pbr.com/blog and selecting the most recently posted “Final Word with Ty Murray.” This week, Murray also spoke about Austin Meier’s second event win, and about all 10 of the preliminary World Cup picks.
NEWS and NOTES
PBR NOW on RFD-TV: Hosted by J.W. Hart and Justin McBride, “PBR NOW” is a weekly live one-hour TV series that airs every Thursday on RFD-TV at 10 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to call in with questions at 866-547-9696, or email them to pbr@rfdtv.com.
Event Center: Follow all the action from this week’s BFTS event in Glendale, Ariz., by logging on to www.pbr.com and entering the “Event Center,” which is accessible from the tab located at the top of the main Web page. The Event Center provides live scoring, live blogging and event-related Podcasts and interviews.
