How Many 90-Point Rides Does Leme Think he Can Reach by Season’s End?
By: Justin Felisko
NASHVILLE – Reigning World Champion Jose Vitor Leme was hanging out with some friends recently when they all started wondering out loud about just how many 90-point rides the world No. 1 bull rider could finish the season with.
Twenty-two? Twenty-three? Twenty-five?
Everyone has rightfully been wondering just how far Leme can push his season for the ages.
It has been a given for the past few weeks that Leme would set the new PBR single-season record for most 90-point rides.
Leme officially took sole possession of the record by riding Show Me Homie for 90.75 points to win Round 1 of the PBR Ariat Music City Knockout, presented by Cooper Tires, on Saturday night.
Leme’s 17th 90-point ride on the premier series this year breaks Cody Hart’s previous record of 16 90-point rides, set during his 1999 PBR World Championship season.
“It’s very special,” Leme said. “I am not only here to win. I want to put my name on the history (books). Now I put my name for another reason, for most 90-point rides in a single season. I’m just so happy because I work for that. I work hard for all these 90s. I pick the rank bulls to go into the 90s, and I’m just so happy and blessed about another great mark on my career.”
So just how far does Leme think he can increase his 90-point ride record?
“I will try to just keep going,” Leme said with a laugh. “I don’t know. I have some friends say 23, 22. I want them all.
“Maybe 30!”
To reach 30, Leme would need to record 13 more 90-point rides in his 36 remaining premier series outs this season. That number may seem unlikely, but if Leme continues to ride at his current pace, he could potentially get to 25-28 90-point rides.
Regardless of what the end number is, Leme’s 2021 has already been a historic season.
Hart’s single-season 90-point ride record stood for 21 seasons, and Leme broke it this year with more than two months of the season remaining.
Leme’s ever-growing 90-point ride record is one that belongs in the same echelon as Barry Bonds hitting a Major League Baseball record 73 home runs in the 2001 MLB season, Peyton Manning throwing for 55 touchdowns during the 2013 NFL season, Wayne Gretzky lighting the lamp 92 times during the 1981-82 NHL season, and Wilt Chamberlain scoring an NBA record of 4,029 points in 1962.
Two-time World Champion and CBS color analyst Justin McBride is tied with three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes for the second-most 90-point rides in a season with 15.
“Leme’s so good, people are getting numb to how good he is,” McBride said this weekend. “I really feel like every record that he’s breaking is such a big deal in its own right. Like the 90-point one, that’s been around since 1999, and 90-point rides are harder to get now than they were then. You stack up his 90s against Cody Hart’s 90s, and there’s going to be some of them that you’re like, ‘Oh. Huh.’ That’s not to take anything away from what Cody Hart did, because he had a hell of a year and made a bunch of great rides. I’ve seen every one of them, and he made some really good rides on all different kinds of bulls.”
Fellow two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood posted the fourth-most 90s in a season two years ago with 14 when he rallied from behind at the 2019 World Finals to snatch the world title out of Leme’s grasp in Las Vegas.
Lockwood says you can’t deny how iconic a season Leme is putting together.
“I am so impressed,” Lockwood said. “It is hard to argue with the stats and where he is. He doesn’t buck off. He is winning the world for a reason, and seeing him do this good is so cool.”
Leme set the PBR record for the highest-scored ride in PBR history three weeks ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a sensational 97.75-point ride on Woopaa.
2021 is far from over, and Leme has plenty of work to do if he wants to join Silvano Alves as the only riders to win back-to-back world titles later this year at the 2021 PBR World Finals on Nov. 3-7 in Las Vegas. Regardless, he is still comfortable saying this season is certainly going to be a memorable one for him.
Leme earned 29 world points on Saturday night by winning Round 1 in Nashville to push his lead atop the world standings to 439.50 points.
He will look to win his fifth UTB event of the year on Championship Sunday (8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network).
“It’s already special for me because I’ve had a lot of great moments this year already,” Leme said. “And for sure, it’s going to be awesome at the end of the season because even if I don’t win, I did great things this season. I rode Woopaa for 97.75. Maybe I will break this record. I already have records, and that is already amazing.
“For sure, it’s a special year for me.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
© 2021 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.