By the Numbers: Productive premier series pack continues hot start to 2025
Leme, Divino, Alvidrez produce flawless performances while Kasel stays hot out west.
By James Youness
FORT WORTH, Texas – Efficiency comes in many forms in sizes. Specifically in the world of Western sports.
The ideal path to the 2025 PBR World Championship would involve plenty of good health and even more rank rides. But more times than not, the top-ranked bull riders in the world are the men who turn in solid efforts more than weekends than not.
Cowboys who consistently put up scores on the board and take home ever-important points towards their respective season-long journey.
With the tour reverting back to an international-based points system, recognizing riders for their time spent and rides earned on various PBR Brazil, PBR Canada, PBR Australia, Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour events and beyond means this year’s chase will welcome some new faces.
But it’s the amount of quality talent from any corner of the planet that could quite literally creep into competition and give any given competitor a run for their money.
So, when we say the 2025 title will be one of the hardest to capture, we mean it.
Partially due to the amount of high-end talent that continues to find its way to Unleash The Beast.
But equally in part due to the determination, grit and focus we’ve already seen on display through just two events. Yet, it’s the consistency of the greater premier series pack so far that serves as an immediate threat to riders like John Crimber and Jose Vitor Leme who would love to create themselves an early runaway lead.
With the pack riding 46-of-90 (51.1%) last weekend in Ontario, California, before besting 37 of 92 back in Tucson, Arizona (40.2%), it’s clear than the boys are still rather rested from a few weeks off, officially 83-for-182 (45.6%) overall on the season.
When you consider the circuit will pause next weekend for Thanksgiving and then again a few weeks later for the final holiday session of the year, bodies should be bruise-free and intact.
For the most part, at least!
Of course, it’s no coincidence that as the ever-increasing amount of skilled riders continues to climb, so do the tour’s records. Revisiting the record books once again Saturday night out west, the pack combined to ride 23-of-40 bulls inside Toyota Arena as fans were greeted by one of the flashiest opening rounds in UTB history.
The flashiest, to be exact.
Dalton Kasel exited the opening slate victorious as the only man to meet the 90-point mark. But it was damn good to see 22 other contestants earn a spot on the night one leaderboard.
Proving the first 40 outs weren’t a fluke by any means, the pack went on to record 20 conversions throughout Sunday’s Round 2, with Jose Vitor Leme providing the lone 90 this time around.
And we all know what he did after he got some momentum going!
Seeing 13 different riders secure at least two qualified rides, including a trio of 3-for-3 efforts, over the weekend solidified what we witnessed in Week 1: These guys aren’t fooling around with their early-season reps.
Knowing 2024 World Champion Cassio Dias is likely set to miss the remainder of the season means the driver’s seat is wide open.
We’ve just got to sit back, relax and see who wants it most.
Back at it again, PBR.com is busting out the second By the Numbers of the season as we take a closer look at Leme’s dominant display, as well as several other standout performances and outlying numerals from last weekend’s ever-epic showcase in Ontario, California!
Lucky No. 3?: There may have been three different men who pieced together flawless 3-for-3 showings during the second premier series event of the fresh 2025 season. And while Andrew Alvidrez and Lucas Divino had to be happy with their perfect records, it was two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme who exited the western showcase with his first win of the season. More importantly, it was his first UTB event title earned in nearly two years! Which is both a bit of a shocker and also one hell of a sign that “Champ” himself could be positioning himself to make a- run at what would be his third PBR World Championship.
We weren’t exactly sure which version of Leme would show up in 2025. Having doctored out of the second half of the 2024 UTB season with injury, he was able to shake the dust off throughout the summer stretch as he and his Austin Gamblers captured the 2024 PBR Teams Championship for the first time. Starting his sparkling clean slate with an odd 0-for-2 slate back in Tucson, Arizona, was merely a bump in the road, as it was rather evident which version we’re getting this time around, as the two-time PBR Teams MVP was firing on all cylinders in Week 2. Posting two of the contest’s four 90-pointers inside Toyota Arena, he bested I’m Him for 87.5 points Saturday night before winning both Round 2 and the short go via electric 90.25 (HomeBru) and 90.5-point dances (Umm) on Championship Sunday. Propelling himself all the way to the No. 3 rank after beginning the season with a rare zero-point effort, Leme is primed to not only catch up to the likes of John Crimber, Dalton Kasel and top-tier contenders. He’s on pace to pass them with flying colors.
Round 1, Rank 2: “Mr. 90-Pointer” himself not only retained his No. 2 spot in the UTB standings but reminded fans exactly why he’s earned his prized nickname early into the two-day gathering. Teaming up with Coach to win Saturday night’s opening round, he was awarded a sincere 90.25-point mark en route to earning the 35th premier series 90-point ride of his standout career.
Earning 29 points for his first round win of the year, he made it clear that his Week 1 run wasn’t a fluke or good karma coming back around. He’s locked in and riding like a contender – exactly what he looked like during his first opportunity on Sunday. Matching Kwik Lock’s every move on his way to collecting an 87.75-point score, he tied for fourth in Round 2 as he officially punched another ticket to the short go, having now appeared in both of this season’s exclusive shootouts. Eventually sent to the dirt during his head-to-head dance with Reality Check in a very close 7.16 seconds, he settled for a No. 4 finish overall as the highest-marked rider with two scores on the board. Just 32.5 points back from John Crimber, who turned in an unusual 0-for-2 slate, could this be Kasel’s year?
Built 4 This: In all fairness, it shouldn’t shock too many fans to see the likes of John Crimber, Dalton Kasel and Jose Vitor Leme atop the standings. And, nothing against the man himself, but not as many tour supporters would’ve guessed Andrew Alvidrez would be the next man listed two events into the season. Officially 4-for-5 on the season, he joined Leme and Divino in producing a flawless 3-for-3 slate inside Toyota Arena en route to capturing his first podium appearance of 2025. And while his 85.25-point (No Man’s Land) and 88.75-point (Good Riddance) conversions earned him his spot in the Championship Round, it was his epic 90.5-point effort atop Electric Kitty that captured the attention of thousands out west.
Bringing plenty of momentum into next weekend’s PBR St. Louis Presented by Michelob ULTRA, Alvidrez remains one of the hardest working cowboys on tour. Something his Missouri Thunder Head Coach Ross Coleman reminds us of every chance he can! His No. 4 status shouldn’t feel too unfamiliar to the athlete himself, as we’ve seen Alvidrez go on a tear early into the 2023 campaign, ever-dominant in the Northeast en route to picking up consecutive wins in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Albany, New York. And with the circuit primed to head that way here as the new year approaches, things may be lining up in the Seminole, Texas, native’s favor.
80.16: Averaging 80.16 points over the course of three qualified rides isn’t usually something to celebrate, per se. But it’s never about how you start and always about how you finish. So, when Lucas Divino turned some heads after accepting an imperfect 72-point score Saturday night following his dance with Joe Hawk, he was happy to be turning them in a different direction after finishing the event in third place. Representing his first Top 3 effort since April 2023, where he managed a third-place finish in Billings, Montana, the Austin Gamblers’ veteran may be onto something. The consistency piece that we mentioned in the open. 90s are cool, but if you ask Alan de Souza, who logged more unideal rides than any other man on tour in 2024, there’s plenty of cash and glory to be earned in median mode. Not that either of them are looking for the subpar scores – but there’s something to be said about finishing the job even when the bull isn’t bucking at his best.
Knowing there were 23 riders who made the 8 Saturday night is a historical fact on its own. Realizing Divino was ranked No. 23 of 23 at the end of Round 1 means he turned things up a notch as the weekend progressed. Eventually recording 85.5 (Ah Hell) and 83 points (Hell Right) as he went through Hell and back (yes, that’s a pun), he exited the arena with a quality 61 points and a check for $13,183, now ranked No. 6 overall ahead of Week 3’s showcase in St. Louis, Missouri.
