Luc Vandriessche (Zingem) 1st provincial Cahors East-Flanders and scores 2 top national

Luc and his pigeons have something with Cahors and Luc urgently needs to go there on holiday to visit this ‘pigeon pilgrimage place’ for him. Two years back he scored 1st national on this long-distance race and this year he wins 1st provincial and 3rd provincial (4th and 11th national). That does something to a person.  Especially when you know that in the past few weeks and months Luc was ei if not a pigeon player.
Years of heavy labour in the construction industry, where Luc did not spare his body, caused quite severe back problems. Days, weeks where the pain was unbearable, little or no sleep, walking bent over and quasi unable to take care of the pigeons threatened to ruin pigeon racing.
With a lot of help from his neighbour and long-time regular pigeon helper and friend Herman Onderbeke and his girlfriend Sabine and neighbour Omer, this period was overcome by fits and starts.  After some treatments, Luc's health has thankfully improved over the past few weeks and he can already walk normally again and go through life with much less pain.
Perhaps the pigeons, which were a burden rather than a pleasure, made sure that there had to be enough courage to do something and shift his thoughts from pain to pigeons...and this is where the basis was laid for these beautiful results.
Luc still has a lot of doubts because the damage to his back is there and the trick will be to minimise the pain, nobody has a crystal ball, so fingers crossed for further good recovery !
But the performance of his pigeons was certainly a very good painkiller.
Cahors, released on Monday.... promised to be a good, correct but certainly tricky flight.  Cahors has never proved an easy flight in the past anyway, but now the weather conditions were very good, and the hard work announced itself. With the arrival of the first pigeons, it appeared that the minute speed would be below 1,200 metres per minute and that says it all.

Hard work does not scare them away !

Just as it was hard work for Luc during his active career, his pigeons are not afraid of hard work either.  In the past they proved enough in long-distance and very long distance races that they are at their best in difficult conditions, it is in their genes. Two years back it was right on target with the 1st national Cahors, last year the pigeons from Cahors were brought back to Belgium due to bad weather conditions, and this year it was another tough race. Luc thus manages to win the 1st provincial on Cahors twice in a row and that should be mentioned. The number of pigeons is relatively limited at Luc and the installations are small but bulging with quality.
Luc is a real winner, he does not mind no effort to get his pigeons to the start in the best possible way and when things do not go so well, this is the signal for him to grab the ‘guidon’ even harder for better results. His cocks are played on classic widowhood, train twice a day and have to start from the first flight. In preparation, they flew Orléans, Vierzon, Limoges.  They are fed with the Versele-Laga feed (combination of purification mix and sport mix) and as a finale, plenty of peanuts. They train twice a day for about an hour and at basketing they are allowed half an hour with their hens. Regularly, some vitamins are added to the feed or in the drinking jar and at basketing a drop is put in each eye to keep the heads clean. Medical advice is obtained from Johan Vandercruyssen and before the season the pigeons are always cleaned of all possible basic ailments.

The ‘178’ is a real good one !

A cock by 2023 (BE23-4030178) the ‘178’ was the first to show his muzzle. At 17:42 at a minute speed of 1,136 metres per minute for 730 km, he gave his boss goosebumps and won 1st club, 1st provincial (1,174 pigeons) and 4th national.

It is a rather slender type of pigeon, with a strong skeleton and a good wing.

That he did not really surprise is shown by the fact that he already won :
- Brive 5th national as a yearling from 3,491 pigeons
- Limoges 58th national from 13,016 pigeons

His father is one of Luc's old strain (from the famous basic pigeon ‘Rosten Dolf’) with a dash of the pigeons of Frederik Everaert from Aarsele.

His mother is also his own old type with a dash of the ace hen of neighbour and pigeon friend Omer Verschueren from Zingem.

Three times top 58 national long distance with a 1st provincial are already nice medals to pin on the lapel.  A super pigeon!

The BE22-4045665 was in the wake

A three-year-old fall-red cock followed 15 minutes later and snatched 2nd club, 3rd provincial and 11th national in the wake of ‘the 178’.  Proof once again that Luc's pigeons are inclined to this flight and these conditions and are in form. In his pedigree we find back a lot of ‘Rosten Dolf’ with some input from the pigeons of Wilson Dekens and Georges Cousaert (tandem Cousaert-Willems). 

What a pleasure to witness these two arrivals. Best medication for the recovery of Luc's back. Possibly it will be good for Luc and those close to him should they set up a pigeon pilgrimage to Cahors after the season. Beautiful city, good food and wine, and enjoy the exploits of his pigeons from this city.

Congratulations from the Herbots team !

Geert Dhaenens