FORT WORTH, Texas – As Silvano Alves was climbing aboard True Religion on Friday night at Rattler Days in Fort Worth, Texas, he looked up at the big screen in Dickies Arena.
It was playing a clip of his first qualified ride on the premier series – an 86.75-point trip on Nasty Town in 2010.
Reflecting on the moment later on in the evening, Alves tears up.
“When I saw the video on the big screen, my first ride here, in the red vest, it looked like yesterday,” he said. “Now it’s 14 years ago.”
Fourteen years, three World Championships, one PBR Camping World Team Series Championship.
And 500 rides.
Alves made the 8-second whistle on True Religion for 84.75 points to join one of the most elite clubs in bull riding. He now has the fourth-most rides in PBR history and joins Guilherme Marchi (637), J.B. Mauney (538), and Mike Lee (525) in the 500 club.
In true Alves fashion, he waited until the chute clock ticked down towards zero before nodding his head. The ride wasn’t pretty, but it was gritty. He fought for every second and barely made the whistle, forced to wait for an official review before celebrating.
When the thumbs-up came, though, the rest of the Nashville Stampede were there to embrace their leader, their closer, their best rider of the season. His wife and children were in the stands to witness it all.
Alves has come a long way from that 22-year-old in the red vest.
“It’s not easy to stay near the top and ride 500 bulls,” Alves said. “There’s only four now. I’m so blessed and happy for this tour and the PBR.
“I’m very happy and thank the Lord for blessing my life and my career. I’m so grateful for all the people behind me – my family, first. My sponsors, my team, the Nashville Stampede, for believing in my job. All PBR fans and PBR, Sean, everybody from PBR.”
Alves got on his first calf when he was 8 years old, following in the footsteps of his father, a professional bull rider locally in Pilar do Sul, Brazil.
His grandfather had milk cows and some calves, and Alves says he just went for it.
“I just ride myself, start learning myself,” he said. “My dad helped me a little bit, but I grew up learning, watching videos, and going to open bull ridings, regional bull ridings in my town.”
He watched Adriano Moraes take over the United States in the PBR and followed riders like Fabricio Alves and Rogerio Ferreira in Brazil. He competed at his first professional rodeo in Brazil when he was 15 and swiftly climbed the ranks until he was right alongside the riders he looked up to.
“Later, we ride together and we win together,” Alves said. “And then I come here – I see Adriano. He invites me for the first time for the World Cup, and it opened the doors in the United States for me, too. I’m so glad that I see all the best bull riders in the world now – a lot of the best bull riders I’m fans of, and they come shake my hand and are fans of mine, too. I’m so proud for putting my name together (with theirs).”
At no point, Alves says, did he ever imagine his career would be as successful as it has been.
“When I started riding bulls, I think and say, my parents and my family, I just want to be the best bull rider near my house,” he says, voice thick with emotion. “Not that my name would be big in Brazil and big in the world.”
Alves is, without a doubt, one of the best bull riders in PBR history. He and Moraes are the only two riders to win three World Championships, and Alves is the only one ever to win two back-to-back. He was the 2010 Rookie of the Year, and in 2011, his first world title season, he had an eye-popping 69% riding percentage. He’s second on the all-time money earners list with $6,653,924 and added a fourth title with the inaugural PBR Teams Championship in 2022.
In his heyday, Alves’s hallmark was simply riding more bulls than anybody else. He wasn’t known for his flash or for constantly racking up 90s, but he stayed on the back of a bull better than anyone else in the world.
Now he has a 500-rides buckle to prove it.
“It will stay together with my three gold buckles,” Alves said with a grin. “It’s special. All four – three titles and the team title, four. And this one, 500. All special buckles.”
And to think it almost never happened.
At the inaugural PBR Teams Draft in 2022, all eight teams passed on Alves. Plenty of people thought his career was all but over. He wasn’t picked up by the Stampede until just before their homestand in late August.
He’s since racked up 21 rides for the Stampede, going 13-for-25 (52%) this season.
Alves hasn’t had a premier series riding percentage that high since his last world title season in 2014.
While the Stampede have struggled this season, going 10-16, Alves has been the biggest bright spot. His 500th career ride helped his team to a 4-for-5, dominant win over the league No. 1 Austin Gamblers.
“It’s very important for me because I’m very happy to be part of a team,” Alves said. “Last year, a big moment in my career – people don’t pick me in the draft. I had my head down and was sad, but I trusted God would prepare me. And they called me, (head coach) Justin (McBride) and (general manager) Tina (Battock), and trusted my job. I jumped in the team, and I do my best last year. And this year, I try again to help out the boys, all the young kids and all the old veteran guys like Kaique (Pacheco) and Chase (Outlaw). But they’ve got a bunch of kids here too, Kaiden (Loud), Mason (Moody). Just try to pass on my experience for these boys. The team is growing together.”
McBride, who won World Championships in 2005 and 2007, is one of the riders Alves looked up to as he made the leap to the United States in 2010. Also on the short list of greatest bull riders of all time, McBride had 374 qualified rides in his career and struggles to comprehend the feat of 500.
“He’s 35 and still putting in the work, still willing to lay it out,” McBride said. “When he got 500 tonight, I mean, he was upside down. He’s still willing to step off that cliff, and that’s just a different kind of mindset. Most people don’t ever, ever understand where that comes from.”
While McBride retired in 2008, he had a front-row seat for much of Alves’s career as a color commentator for PBR broadcasts on CBS. Becoming his coach has given him a whole new appreciation for Alves as both a rider and a man.
“He’s been nothing but a blessing to this team, a real leader,” McBride said. “And yes, the 500-ride thing is huge. That’s something that he should be very proud of. The younger guys don’t even understand how big of a deal that is. But what I’m really proud of is I got to know his family and his kids, and my kids are great friends with his kids, and just to see the kind of human he is, the kind of man that he’s grown into – that’s what I’m really proud of.”
Also on hand for Alves’s milestone ride was PBR’s qualified ride king, Guilherme Marchi, now the assistant coach for the Kansas City Outlaws. He paid a visit to the Stampede’s locker room to congratulate Alves in person, the two sharing some hugs and more than a few back-slaps.
“The first thing I tell him – ‘Welcome to the 500-ride club,’” Marchi said with a smile. “I’m so proud of him, and I’m so proud of his career. He’s one of those guys that the young guys look for to be. A three-time World Champion that has a dream when he’s young to come to the United States, and his dream came true. I’m so thankful that every day, he never quit. He never give up, and he tries so hard, and that’s why he’s still doing so good, because he loves what he does. Congratulations, Silvano, for all your career and the 500 bulls you rode.
“And now, you need to reach 600 bulls, you know?” he said, laughing. “But he’s amazing. And we can tell, in his career, all the numbers he put up – he’s a badass bull rider.”
When Alves hears of Marchi’s directive, he bursts out laughing.
“That’s a hard question,” he said through his grin. “Let me wait.”
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media