LAS VEGAS, Nev. (April 18, 2010) – The 2010 PBR World Cup was Team Brazil’s to win and Team USA’s to steal heading into rounds 5 and 6 on Sunday, April 18.
The odds were stacked against Team USA, which needed to have two more qualified rides in the day than the hot-riding Team Brazil, in order to catch up.
Aiming for a repeat of last year’s Team USA steal of the win at the last ride in Brazil, Team USA riders came in ready to take on any and every bull.
They gave a good effort in pulling it off.
Behind two powerhouse rides of Travis Briscoe – who had been scoreless in the first four rounds – Team USA almost pulled off another World Cup surprise ending.
Briscoe put up the highest score of round five, a 90. 25 pointer on Mission Accomplished, and then followed with an 89.75 point ride on “Paycheck” in round six. When Briscoe came off “Paycheck,” he started celebrating his ride, then saw the clock stopped at 7.9 seconds. Briscoe went straight for the challenge button and hitting it paid off with points.
However, Team Brazil, and especially Renato Nunes, was too hot to stop. When Nunes put up Team Brazil’s first qualified ride of round six, he clinched the title for Brazil. At that point, Team USA was still riding hot, but with a maximum of three qualified scores kept per round, would fall a full ride short of stealing a repeat win.
Also putting an exclamation point on the win in round six were Brazilians Paulo Ferreira with 89.25 points on “Mac Nett’s El Presidente” and Fabricio Alves, who conquered “Big Tex” for 90.5 points.
Briscoe wasn’t the only one fighting for every last point Team USA could muster. Team USA had the top three rides in Round 5, in a bid to take the points lead back from Brazil. Along with Briscoe, Ryan McConnel rode “Check Out” for 89.75 points, and Lee had 89.25 points on “Class 6 Kat.”
In round six, Meier, who had put up scores all weekend long, did it again with 89.25 points on MoeBandy.com. It wasn’t the prettiest of rides, and after getting off the bull, Meier took a bruising horn to the back, but the score helped close the points-gap between Team USA and Team Brazil.
Team Mexico, Team Australia and Team Canada – with both Australia and Canada being injury-challenged – failed to post a qualified ride in round six.
When the last ride went into the books, it was Team Brazil, avenging last year’s loss to Team USA by coming onto their turf and taking home the 2010 World Cup trophy. The team’s total points were 1330.25, four full rides ahead of second place Team USA, which had 972 points for the weekend.
Third was Team Australia, which after a strong start in rounds one and two, stumbled and had trouble regaining its focus. The team ended the weekend with 529.5 points.
Fourth was injury plagued Team Canada, who lost its powerhouse anchor, Aaron Roy in round three. The team ended with 350 points, followed by Team Mexico with 262.25 points.
Guilherme Marchi, Renato Nunes and Robson Palermo were the top three finishers in the individual average, with 432.5, 359 and 353.5 points respectfully. Marchi was named the 2010 World Cup MVP, riding all but one of his bulls in the weekend.
