Melancon Will Be Ready to Grab his Gear Bag and Roll out When Phone Rings
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Cole Melancon sat outside his home in north Texas Monday afternoon and thought about the question.
What was more meaningful to him?
Winning the inaugural the Global Cup in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2017 or being a member of the Team USA Eagles that were victorious at the 2020 WinStar World Casino and Resort Global Cup USA in Arlington, Texas?
Melancon and Cody Teel are the only two riders to be a part of each of the Team USA Eagles’ two Global Cup victories. Both victories are special for different reasons for Melancon, who was a last-minute addition to each squad, and it is pretty hard to decide if one victory means a little more than the other.
“They both will mean a lot,” Melancon said earlier this week in an interview that will air on the PBR’s Facebook and YouTube channels on Friday. “Edmonton was my very first one. That one holds a special place for sure. That was the very first Global Cup. I got to go in there and be a part of it and come out with a win. And this one, the U.S. hadn’t won since Edmonton, and they already had two or three Global Cups between. Brazil had won two back-to-back, and to be a part of this one, another kind of last-minute deal.
“I felt like I belonged there this time, and I actually got to show why I belonged there. And to come out and get the win after (America) had it taken away from them twice, this one holds just as much as the first. I don’t know. It would be hard to pick between them. I would say they both equally hold a special place, that is for sure.”
Fans can watch a special 1-hour Global Cup show Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on CBS national television.
PBR Keep Riding 2020 PBR Global Cup, presented by Monster Energy, is a compilation of Championship Sunday of the 2020 PBR Global Cup. Craig Hummer is joined by two-time World Champion Justin McBride, and the four-time Global Cup coach will provide his insight on his team’s journey to win the coveted cup.
Melancon is 4-for-6 in two Global Cup appearances, and he teamed up with two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood this past February to help Team USA become the first country to win a Global Cup or World Cup on home soil.
Team USA edged Team Australia by only 9.25 points and defending two-time champs Team Brazil by 88 points in Arlington.
“(People) were talking crap pretty much saying no one stood a chance against Brazil,” Melancon said. “Those guys are good, but it was all about who brought their A-game that weekend. To come out with a win with all of the naysayers and the haters, it was pretty cool to shut them up.”
Melancon went 2-for-4, riding Monkey for 88.25 points on Championship Sunday to put the Eagles back into the lead for good in the final out of Round 3.
He also was the first rider to get the Eagles on the scoreboard during night one with his 86-point ride on Top Down after Boudreaux Campbell (6.43 seconds on Big Black Cat) and Daylon Swearingen (6.31 seconds on Wicked Dreams) bucked off.
“Make no mistake about it, Melancon is a gamer,” McBride said in Arlington. “He has a strong confidence in himself, and a great bull rider has to have that. He is well on his way. He has gotten a lot better since Edmonton, and it doesn’t seem to be an end in sight because he believes it. It is not put on. It is not phony. He believes in his ability.”
Melancon debuted on the Unleash The Beast a week earlier to win Iron Cowboy, earning a spot on the Eagles as an injury replacement for 2019 Rookie of the Year Dalton Kasel.
The 26-year-old is currently seventh in the world standings, and he is leading the 2020 Rookie of the Year race. Melancon is 6-for-17 and, like the rest of the PBR, he is patiently waiting for a return to competition.
The PBR is exploring options about how to hold a private, non-public event in the near future that could air on television.
“When they call and say, ‘Hey, we are going to have an event,’ I will grab my gear bag and roll out the door,” Melancon said.
“As far as doing anything special or spectacular, no I haven’t,” he added later. “I have just been doing my everyday thing and just staying home. I have been doing a decent job of that, but I don’t know. I think things are finally starting to dial down, so we will see what happens these next couple of weeks.”
Unlike some PBR riders, Melancon does not have an at-home gym setup, nor has he made it a priority to find a practice pen or bulls to get on.
Melancon has instead used the time to stay busy working at home at some nearby ranches, and is using his time on horseback and working on the ranch as a way to stay in shape as best he can. Rest for his body has become a nice break for the normally nonstop rodeo cowboy.
The two-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier doesn’t think being out of competition for more than a month now since the private Gwinnett Invitational in Duluth, Georgia, will be an issue.
“It doesn’t hurt to brush up and knock the rust off (with a practice bull), and then again, to me, it is like riding a bicycle,” Melancon said. “Once you do it, you know how to do it. You won’t forget how to do it. After you get on one or two it will all come right back to you, and it will all be the same when you nod your head.
“That is how I look at it. Look at J.B. Mauney. He doesn’t work out or get on practice bulls, and he is a badass so it don’t really matter. Everyone has their own deal. Some guys believe that you have to live in the gym, and I am kind of on the fence about it. I feel like I need to be in shape and somewhat in the gym but, then again, the other side of me says, ‘Ah, forget about it. Keep doing what you are doing. Ride horses. Build fence. Work.’
“Everyone has their own deal. I kind of am on the fence about it. I do both. I will work my butt off during the week. I will try to hit the gym up when I can, but I am not going to be that guy that gets up at 4 or 5 in the morning before I do anything else or stay at the gym until 10 or 11 o’clock at night and then turn around at 4 in the morning to go work cows or go cowboy or something.”
Melancon will be ready, one way or another, to continue to pursue goals he has set for this season.
Now that he is firmly in the Top 35, Melancon knows he wants to win the Rookie of the Year title, and hopefully more.
“I want to win that Rookie of the Year,” Melancon said. “That was one of my goals was when I first come to PBR, no matter if I do it now at 26 years old or if I decided not to come until I was 30 years old. It didn’t matter. I was going to want to win Rookie of the Year.
“As far as what else, I am not by no means out of the run for a World Championship or anything like that, but if I am going to be there doing it and up there in the Top 10, I am going to try and finish out and try and give them a good run for it and try. What is better than a Rookie of the Year? That is a world title. To get both in one year would be pretty awesome.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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