Some of the toughest PBR bulls get conquered in Worcester

By Mary Rudloff
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2008

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rides, wrecks, injured riders. Stunning scores, riding the unride-able and threat of blizzards.

The Worcester Classic, Jan.11-13 in Worcester, Mass., had a little bit of everything.

In the end, it’s likely this event will be remembered for the rides that took place – the quantity, quality and the scores.

When the dust finally settled, and fans and riders alike made a mass exodus out of town to beat the threatening 15 inches of snow, one ride and rider will stand out above the rest for most who were there.

The seemingly untouchable Copperhead Slinger got beat by the little redhead from New Mexico, and got beat in a bad way.

Travis Briscoe, who entered the championship round in second place with three scores already on the board, blew the roof off the DCU Center when he rode Copperhead Slinger to the tune of 95 points. The ride was wild enough to knock Briscoe’s helmet from his head during the ride.Briscoe was thrilled to have covered the bull, and with everyone else in attendance knew it was going to be a big score, but he looked stunned when the 95 popped up on the board.

The score brought the crowd to its collective feet and set off the already-weary confetti cannons that celebrate 90 points or better. While it was the biggest, Briscoe’s score was only one of seven 90+ point rides in the championship round.

Eight bulls in total were covered in the round. Closest to Briscoe’s amazing ride was Cord McCoy. McCoy had set the bar high early in the short-go, when he took down another seemingly unride-able bull, Big Bucks. McCoy finished 7th in the event average, earning $4,200 this weekend.

Not to be outdone, Sean Willingham made the 8-second mark on his third bull of the weekend, putting up 91.25 points on the always wild Scene of the Crash. Willingham finished tied for eighth in the event ($3082), and fourth in the round.

Brazilian Paulo Crimber had plenty to dance about this weekend, including conquering Mean Machine in the short go for 89.25. Amazingly the score – usually considered a high mark - was the lowest qualified ride in that round. Crimber was 8th in the round, and split 8th place for the event average ($2218).

The championship rides just kept coming, to the delight of the crowd. Mighty Mike White showed where the “Mighty” part came from, when he rode Walk The Line for 91.5 points – 3rd place – in the short-go. What made it even more impressive was that only an hour or so before the ride, White had to be carried out of the arena after, in round three, Carlito’s Way bucked him off and then came down on his leg. The round 3 buck-off was White’s only “no-score” all weekend, after he won round one and tied for 2nd in round two. He finished fifth in the event average, earning $19,800 this weekend.

Immediately following White in the short-go was Mike Lee, aboard Blue Boy. Until that round, Lee had not bucked off a single bull all season, the only rider with a 100% riding percentage. Blue Boy, however, proved Lee to be a mere mortal, sending him to the dirt in 6.7 seconds.

That was followed by back to back 90.5 point rides by Ross Coleman and Kody Lostroh. Coleman got down to business with Nervous Waters, while Lostroh beat Live Wire. The 90.5 pointer was good enough for the two to split 5th through 7th place with each other and Brazilian Guilherme Marchi. Marchi rode Outsider. In the event average, Marchi finished second, followed by Lostroh in 3rd and Coleman in 4th. Coleman sat out last weekend in New York City, to be home for the birth of his son, Connor.

Brazilian Robson Palermo was the 15th man to make the short-go. Using the new rider-draw system, the 14 other riders chose their bulls first, in order of standing heading into the round. That left Palermo facing Sir Patrick, as all the other riders chose around that bull. Palermo couldn’t beat the beast, however, with his ride ending at the 6.3 second mark.

Palermo made the short go only because Australian Greg Potter was unable to compete in the round. Potter sustained a concussion when he crashed to the ground at the 6.3 second mark, bucking off Red River Bob. Potter tried to get to his feet and, rubber-legged, staggered to the chute gates ,fighting to keep himself vertical until the medical staff reached him. Potter still finished 13th in the event.

Rounding out the Short Go’s Top 15 were:

Colby Yates, the round two winner, on California Dreaming, 3.3 seconds. He finished 6th in the event;

Matt Bohon on Cooper, 4.8 seconds. He finished 14th in the event;

Tyler Smith on McClintock, 3.3 seconds. He finished 15th in the event;

Ednei Caminhas, the 2002 PBR world champion, on Evil Forces for 7.5 seconds. He finished 11th in the event;

Renato Nunes on Cat Man Do, the bull that won round 2 for Colby Yates, for 6.0 seconds. Nunes finished tied for 7th in the event.

The biggest casualty of the event was 2007 PBR World Finals winner Wiley Petersen. Petersen was unable to compete Sunday, after suffering a broken collarbone in Saturday night’s round two. He is expected to be out six to eight weeks.

The weekend in Worcester continued a trend started in New York City the weekend before, with a total of 38 riders covering at least one bull this weekend. Four riders covered all four and another 8 covered three bulls each.