Vieira Carried Some Extra Luck in Colorado

PUEBLO, Colo. – Joao Ricardo Vieira’s left thumb fiddled with the special coin that he had resting on his event-winning belt buckle from the Rumble in the Rockies, presented by Cooper Tires, on Sunday afternoon.

Vieira was patiently answering questions about winning his first Built Ford Tough Series event of the 2016 season. It was a win that may have saved his World Championship aspirations, but the 32-year-old couldn’t stop playing with the coin.

After 3 minutes, Vieira finally changed the subject from his monumental victory to the coin that he had between his fingers.

“I met someone from the military this week that has carried around this coin and even took it to war,” Vieira said with the help of a translator. “He handed it to me.”

Vieira paused before continuing to explain that he had met a retired Green Beret named David during a Bass Pro Shops autograph signing on Saturday. The two struck up a conversation and David gave Vieira a commemorative coin honoring the nation’s Special Forces as a good luck charm.

The Itatinga, Brazil, native rode with the coin in the left pocket of his jeans all weekend inside Broadmoor World Arena, including on Saturday night when he rode Dirty Little Secret for 84.25 points. Vieira hadn’t even jumped off his bull before David, who was sitting in the lower bowl of the arena with another of Vieira’s friends, let out a vociferous yell in celebration. Vieira then ran over to that side of the dirt where he jumped onto the fence and high-fived his pals.

“It always symbolized success and he passed it on to me so that I can feel I will always have that extra strength with me,” Vieira said. “He always worked very hard for his living, for his country and for his profession. To me, this a symbol of the kind of hard work to preserve.”

Vieira may have needed that extra boost of strength on Sunday afternoon when he selected Chad Berger’s Big Cat during the Built Ford Tough Championship Round draft.

Big Cat was coming off a 46-point outing in Springfield, Missouri, and had made a mockery of Wallace de Oliveira.

Vieira had no plans of being embarrassed and instead it was Vieira making Big Cat look like nothing more than a kitten.

“This was the first bull (I wanted) in the draft,” he said. “I need to ride the hard bulls. I like hard bulls. It was 87.75, but to me it was 90 points.”

The ride was Vieira’s eighth successful 8-second ride in the championship round this year, which ties him for the most in the PBR alongside Eduardo Aparecido.

“I thought he looked perfect,” said nine-time World Champion and CBS Sports Network commentator Ty Murray. “On the telecast before he went I said, ‘This is where we are going to see what this bull is made of,’ and Joao made him look like a nice spinner. I don’t think he was the man-eater everyone thought he was, but that bull wasn’t no day off either.

“Joao just ate him alive.”

Big Cat spun right into Vieira’s left-handed wheelhouse and Vieira made sure to not let a golden opportunity pass him by.

Vieira was the only rider to go 3-for-3 in Colorado Springs. He rode Crazy Days for 84.75 points in Round 2 and he earned 570 world points at the two-day event. More important, he gained 560 points on world leader Kaique Pacheco, who only earned 10 world points.

He was on the verge of falling 2,000 points behind Pacheco in the world standings at the beginning of the weekend.  Vieira’s victory now puts him only 1,142.83 points out of the top spot in the world standings with four regular-season events remaining until the Built Ford Tough World Finals on Nov. 2-6.

Vieira also will be able to use this weekend’s 15/15 Bucking Battle at the Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic in Eugene, Oregon, to gain more ground. The event will be broadcast on CBS national television Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.

Vieira is no stranger to being amidst the world title race at this point in the season. He just hasn’t been able to close things out, which can get frustrating.

Vieira entered the 2014 World Finals as the No. 1 rider in the world standings before Silvano Alves came from behind to win his record-tying third gold buckle, and Vieira was the world No. 1 rider as late as the first week of September last season before being passed by J.B. Mauney in the world standings as injuries and poor riding led to his second-half collapse.

“I put him in the dark horse category,” Murray said. “We have seen this from Joao for years. I see him getting better away from his hand, but he struggles there. That can present a real problem. When they go into his hand, he is like Guilherme Marchi of old.”

Vieira finished runner-up to Alves in the final 2014 world standings and in third place last year. He also placed third in the 2013 world standings.

This year Vieira is trying to be the stunner instead of the stunned.

“I really gained some ground by earning points,” Vieira said. “It is really stimulating and encouraging to fight for it. … My mind and my body are in a really good place right now. I am very confident and excited to get to the next event and to really ride my bulls.”

Vieira was primarily in the world title conversation last year because of two PBR Major victories.

He actually hadn’t won a BFTS regular-formatted event since February 2014 (Kansas City) until this weekend, but he did win the 15/15 Bucking Battle in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month with an 81.25-point ride on No Regrets.

In fact, Vieira is quietly on pace for his best season in his four-year career. Vieira is 37-for-80 and his 46.25-percent riding percentage is second to his 48.61-percent clip from his 2013 Rookie of the Year campaign. He is also only five rides away from eclipsing his career-high of 41 rides from 2014.

“I started strong this year, but then I had a concussion, broke my nose and then I tore my bicep. That really set me back,” Vieira said. “Now this is why it means so much when I say my body feels good.”

He also will make sure to have his new good luck charm in his pockets at future events and at the World Finals.

“I am going to wear this every time I ride,” he said. “I hope it will give me a lot of luck.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko