April Power Rankings

Since we have reached the halfway point of the season and with most of the guys having a week off, I thought that it would be a good time for April Power Rankings.

This installment will cover the events in Fresno, Albequerque, New Orleans, and Nampa.

Here are my current power rankings.

Riders:

1) Ryan McConnell - Apparently, if Ryan has his priorities straight, he should be the most consistent and dominant rider on the tour. He has looked insanely tough to get on the ground in the last month. He has run off four straight Top 5 finishes, and has one round win and one 90 point ride.

2) Renato Nunes - This was tough. Renato was so dominant in Fresno that it was tough not to put him at #1 just due to that one event. However, since then he has placed 8th at Albequerque, went 0-Nola, and then was 8th again at Nampa. I decided that McConnel's run of top 5 finishes was more impressive than Nunes' run of five straight 90's (only four of which were in the events I was counting in this ranking). The two round wins, one event win, and four 90 point rides are pretty hard to ignore, but Renato will have to settle for #2 for the second time in a row.


3) Guillerme Marchi - Guillerme is looking like himself again after his meltdown at the '09 Finals. Even with the bum wrist, he is remarkably consistent, and looks like he can ride anything they run in under him. Two top five finishes in the last month as well as 2 out of 4 rides in the short round push him ahead of Austin Meier and Mike Lee for third.

4) Austin Meier - The number one rider in the world standings didn't have his best month, but he has managed to ascend to the #1 spot and stay there for a few weeks, which is saying something this year. He has been hot and cold for the last month, and if he can be a little more consistent, he could spend the rest of the year higher in the power rankings than this. The weekend he had at Ty's event in Albuquerque was impressive. Two round wins, one 90 point ride, and, of course, the event win will help anyone's power ranking, but two Oh for the weekend events at Fresno and New Orleans kept him from being higher. He looked strong again in Nampa, continues to stay healthy, and I think Austin has to be one of the two or three best bets to have a new Jeffrey Scott buckle come November.

5) Mike Lee - Lee is back to riding the way PBR fans are accustomed. If he can stay healthy, he will be a factor in the world championship race. Top 10 finishes at Fresno, New Orleans, and Nampa show that his consistency is back, and his 90 point ride on Soulja Boy was impressive, but he needs to improve on his 1-3 short round performance if he wants to stay in my rankings.


Bulls

1) Voodoo Child - Not sure if this takes any explanation. He has had a huge year, and continued it this month with another 46 point out in Albuquerque. The gap between Voodoo and the rest of the field has narrowed, because we have only seen him once in the last month, but he is still the toughest their is in the game.

2) Code Blue- One bad out in a bad situation in a bad venue, and everyone wanted to bury the reigning champ. Then he shows up in New Mexico, throws up a 46.75 and follows it up with a 45.5 in NOLA. Like I have mentioned, I am not a huge fan of "eliminator" bulls, but I think that this one can be ridden for big points. He doesn't belly roll, he just has a different trip every time, which makes riding him very tough.

3) Braveheart- I am not usually going to put a bull this high in my rankings based on such a small sample, but wow. He got my attention in Anaheim with a 45.5 and then blew up in Fresno for a 47. Crazy bull numbers. He will be bucking in Vegas this weekend, so I can't wait to see how he follows that one up.

4) Chicken on a Chain - Chicken continues to be one of the best we have ever seen. Two 45+ outs in the last four weeks, and carrying Ross Coleman to a short round win in Fresno prove that.

5) Big Tex - Two 45+ outs show that Big Tex is still one of the toughest bulls around. He hasn't blown up for a huge score lately, but I feel one coming on.


Honorable Mention - Black Pearl, Super Duty, Yellow Jacket Jr., Smackdown, White Magic - It was really tough to leave any of these bulls off the list, much less all of them. Black Pearl continues to win cowboys lots of money, while Yellow Jacket Jr., and Super Duty have future star written all over them. White Magic has been around forever, but deserves mention for a very good month.