PUEBLO, Colo. (September 2, 2009) - No other rider currently ranked in Top 10 has shown more growth from last season than fourth-year veteran Ryan McConnel.
The New Mexico native, who relocated to Oklahoma earlier this year, has steadily ascended up the world standings, and won his first-ever Built Ford Tough Series event in Birmingham, Ala.
One key to his success has been consistency.
He’s competed in 25 events in 2009 – compared to just 16 events in the past three years – and finished in the Top 10 an impressive 10 times, four times in the Top 5.
But his successes in the past 10 months go beyond the bucking chute.
“My mind got to rest between then and the start of the next season,” McConnel said, “and being able to start fresh with everybody. I wasn’t behind and having to catch up and watch myself as a Challenger competitor and hope that I got to the next round.”
After a trio of Top 10 finishes in Dallas, 3, Winston-Salem, 5, and Tampa, 9, he began to believe he belonged among the best riders in the world. By the time he left Birmingham, he knew.
Last season, McConnel rode in 12 BFTS events and competed in the World Finals as an alternate. He finished the season ranked 53rd, his best finish until now, but he was just happy to be there.
This year he has his sights set on overtaking the six riders ranked above him. Although he has 4,127.75 points to make up, he truly believes he can ride down the likes of Robson Palermo, Valdiron de Oliveira, Zack Brown, J.B. Mauney, Guilherme Marchi and Kody Lostroh.
“I’m only happy with being one of the top runners for a world title,” he said, “and that’s where I’m sitting right now.
“If you want to classify yourself as one of the guys on the Built Ford Tough tour, then you have to keep chasing it nonstop no matter what.”
If this past weekend is any indication – he was the second most productive rider at the 2009 PBR World Cup, behind only Mauney, – the 22-year-old proved that when the lights are the brightest he’s capable of riding his best.
McConnel covered five of six bulls, but none were as important as his last ride in Round 6. With just two riders remaining for each team, captain J.W. Hart pulled McConnel aside.
“We had two chances to seal it,” Hart recalled, “and I grabbed him back of the vest and I said, ‘I hate to put the whole weight of the United States of America on your shoulders, but if you stay on this bull they cannot beat us. We win.’”
“Every time we bucked off one it was loud, and every time we rode one it was just totally silent,” McConnel said. “When he come up behind me and said, ‘If you ride, we win,’ well, it was huge.”
“He was like, ‘Oh hell, don’t tell me that,’” Hart said.
Now that McConnel’s back stateside, the Cup experience is just another memory of a storybook season.
And beginning in Reno next weekend, he’ll look to write another heroic chapter (one with the ultimate ending for a professional bull rider).
“It’s hard to do that because you want to keep going and not look back to see what you’ve done,” he said. “Until it’s all over you just want to keep your head down, but I have glanced back and looked over my shoulder and just this year it’s been phenomenal for me.
“I really pulled a lot of stuff together that I (knew) I could. I couldn’t be any more happy with myself until I climb six more spots and hopefully be holding a gold buckle at the end.”
—by Keith Ryan Cartwright
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