PUEBLO, Colo. – The PBR is back in action, and in a way that you’ve never seen it before.
The PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by U.S. Border Patrol, will run from June 5-28 at the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa in Las Vegas, and culminate in a Championship Weekend Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on July 10-12 in front of fans. The event will feature 12 teams and 48 bull riders, with each team consisting of four riders, and there will be two divisions of six teams. The Top 3 teams in each division will then qualify for Championship Weekend.
Each of the 12 competing teams will be comprised of three active riders, one of whom is the Captain, an alternate, and a supervisory General Manager.
Division A will hold its first weekend of competition June 5-7, followed by its final weekend of play June 12-14. Teams to be announced in Division B will compete the weekends of June 19-21 and June 26-28. Each night of televised action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will feature three games, with each team competing once per night at the Pendleton Whisky Let ‘Er Buck Saloon at South Point Arena.
Each game will be comprised of 12 collective outs, with each team attempting six bulls. In each game, three riders per team, as selected by the General Manager, will attempt two bulls each. The winner of each game will be the team with the top combined aggregate score from their six outs.
On Wednesday, the first six teams – comprising Division A – were announced. In the lead-up to competition, PBR.com will be diving deeper into each roster.
The next team on the docket, led by general manager Jess Lockwood, features team captain and three-time World Champion Silvano Alves, No. 15 Mason Taylor, Luciano de Castro and four-time PRCA champion J.W. Harris.
Read on to learn more about Team Alves, and stay tuned for more on the rest of Division A.
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SILVANO ALVES
Alves may still be looking to regain the form that led him to World Championships in 2011, 2012 and 2014, but he’s still etching his name into the history books. At the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational in May, Alves tied and subsequently overtook Chris Shivers for the fifth-most qualified rides on the premier series in PBR history with rides No. 412 and 413, and now has 415. Alves is ranked No. 32 in the world standings, but in the last two Unleash The Beast events, he’s 4-for-6 with a fifth-place finish at the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational, presented by U.S. Border Patrol.
Alves also has team experience, having ridden for Team Brazil at the PBR Global Cup in Edmonton in 2017 and at the PBR World Cup in 2010.
RELATED: Alves ties Shivers for fifth-most qualified rides in PBR history
MASON TAYLOR
Taylor began the 2020 season with a statement, winning the Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden 15/15 Bucking Battle with the first 90-point ride of the season, 90 points on Marquis Metal Works Bill the Butcher. He followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the overall event. Since then, Taylor has slowed down a bit, but he is coming off a sixth-place finish at the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational, including a Round 1 win. He finished 2019 ranked No. 14 – and No. 4 in the Rookie of the Year race – and is currently ranked No. 15.
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LUCIANO DE CASTRO
2020 has not yet been kind to Castro, but the Monster Energy Team Challenge could be the opportunity he needs to turn things around. Currently ranked No. 102 in the world, Castro was cut from the Unleash The Beast in February after going 2-for-19. However, this is far from his norm, as he finished the 2019 season ranked No. 9 in the world, was No. 6 in 2018 and No. 25 during his 2017 rookie campaign.
Castro has also been on two Global Cup squads, representing Team Brazil in Sydney in 2018 and Arlington in 2020. He’s 3-for-4 at the Global Cup, finishing fourth in the overall aggregate in Sydney.
J.W. HARRIS
Harris is no stranger to PBR competition, having competed on the premier series from 2014-2017 and earning three event wins and winning the 2014 Rookie of the Year title. He made his last appearance at the 2017 PBR World Finals, where he placed 13th overall. But he’s better known for his rodeo career, as he’s a four-time PRCA champion, taking the title in 2008-2010 and 2013. Harris also has nine Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifications under his belt, doing so from 2006-2014. Since turning his focus back to rodeo, he finished 2019 ranked No. 29 in the PRCA bull riding standings and is ranked No. 24 currently.
RELATED: Harris heads back to rodeo with no regrets
