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Vieira Looking to Kickstart World Title Run at Days of ’47 and Last Cowboy Standing

By: Justin Felisko

PUEBLO, Colo. – Joao Ricardo Vieira seems to have a knack for rising to the occasion when there is the most money up for grabs.

Vieira has won more than $1.3 million with his PBR record-tying four PBR Major victories ($638,833), three wins at The American rodeo ($598,833.33) and a 2019 win at the WCRA Titletown Stampede ($74,777.75) in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The 36-year-old, though, has his sights set on the ultimate $1 million prize this year, which, of course, would be the 2021 PBR World Championship. The No. 5-ranked bull rider in the world will restart that quest Thursday night at the Days of ’47 Cowboy Games & Rodeo before turning his focus to Last Cowboy Standing at Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Fans can watch all the action from Salt Lake City LIVE on RidePass on Pluto TV for free, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET.

“I am excited for the WCRA Salt Lake and Cheyenne,” Vieira told PBR.com this week. “This is a good chance to get good money. Major event. I like these.”

Also competing in the bull riding Thursday night at the Days of ’47 Arena are Top 35 riders Mauricio Moreira (No. 14) and Claudio Montanha Jr. (No. 32). Dalton Davis, Lukasey Morris, Nic Lica, Trevin Bundy and Trevor Kastner round out the eight-man field.

 
Vieira could have opted to not compete in the Semi-Final Rounds at the Days of ’47 seeing as his No. 1 ranking on the WCRA leaderboard earned him an automatic bid to the Gold Medal Round on Saturday night, but he knows there is an opportunity to pick up potentially 44 world points, as well as some additional cash, in Salt Lake City.

Vieira is 393.5 points behind world leader Jose Vitor Leme in the 2021 PBR World Championship race.

Days of ‘47 will be a good warm-up for Vieira before he turns his focus to Last Cowboy Standing at Cheyenne Frontier Days on Monday/Tuesday (10 p.m. ET CBS Sports Network).

Vieira got on five practice bulls in Brazil this summer – the same number of bulls he will need to ride Tuesday night in Cheyenne to win Last Cowboy Standing – once he went home following Chad Berger’s annual Touring Pro Division event in Bismarck, North Dakota, in mid-June.

Forty-two riders will begin Cheyenne in Round 1, with the Top 25 scores advancing to Round 2. The Top 8 riders via aggregate score following the second round will then advance to Round 3. Next, Round 4 will consist of the Top 4 riders in the aggregate based on the previous three rounds.

Essentially, the first four rounds will be cut down from 42 riders to 25 to 8 to 4.

Round 5 will feature every rider who posted a qualified ride in Round 4. A minimum of two riders will compete in Round 5. If only one rider covers in Round 4, then the PBR will bring back one rider (based on aggregate scores following the completion of Round 4).

The rider with the highest score in Round 5 will win the title of Last Cowboy Standing. If all riders buck off in Round 5, then the LCS crown will go to the rider with the highest aggregate score among those that attempted a bull in Round 5.

The LCS winner receives 150 world points, and the runner-up takes home 94 points.

 
Vieira, who turns 37 on July 28, says he is fully recovered from the abdominal strain he sustained on May 4 at the last WCRA event (Corpus Christi, Texas) and that he is prepared for the grueling event that is Last Cowboy Standing.

Vieira missed two premier series events before returning for the conclusion of the first half of the Unleash The Beast with a 1-for-3 showing at the PBR Las Vegas Invitational. He then went 1-for-3 at the Dakota Community Bank & Trust PBR Bull Riding Challenge.

“I have been training for this and training to get the win,” Vieira said. “I just need luck to get good bulls and ride my bulls.”

Vieira is no stranger to progressive-style events such as Last Cowboy Standing. Three of his four PBR Major victories came at previous events using a similar format as Cheyenne. He also won the 2015 Last Cowboy Standing under a different format in Las Vegas six years ago.

Cheyenne will be the first PBR Major since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year. It could greatly impact the world title race, with one rider potentially earning up to 300 world points. At a minimum, the Last Cowboy Standing event winner will earn 150 world points. A rider can also win up to $140,000 if they were to win every round ($8,000 per round / 30 world points) and the event title ($75,000) as well as the high-marked ride bonus ($20,000).

Last year, Vieira won the season-opening PBR Major at Madison Square Garden in New York City to remain in world title contention all the way until he tested positive for COVID-19 just days before the World Finals when he was the No. 2 bull rider in the world.

Vieira has remained steadfast in his belief that he can once again fight for a world title this season. He certainly will begin the second half with the opportunity to become the oldest PBR World Champion in PBR history.

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

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