Stefaan Cooreman (Buggenhout) wins Valence East Flanders

With Valence we have arrived at the opening flight of the Rhône triptych. With another Valence and the international flight Marseille, this is still a mythical triptych where ace pigeon winners and laureates are treated with great respect.
It was, as several times already this spring, fiddling with the weather models to achieve a good release.  Finally, the baskets opened on Monday after the pigeons were basketed on Wednesday.  Two more nights in the basket and what would that do to pigeons ?
At the start the pigeons got strong north wind on the snout in the Rhone valley to then, once above Lyon get less wind and rather southwest under the tail. The minute speeds prove that it was a fair, correct flight with the Rans brothers from Leuven as nice national winners.
In Buggenhout (literally the geographically-calculated center of Belgium) and on the border of East Flanders, Brabant and Antwerp, Stefaan Cooreman was surprised with a top pigeon when he didn't think they could be there yet.
He was still messing around in his loft when he suddenly got the signal of an arriving pigeon.  When you are positively surprised then the result is usually good to very good ...and that was the case here!

Blue Valence (BE23-4107000) snatches the provincial victory palm

It is a beautiful pigeon, a slender athlete, smaller type, little weight but strong wings and a very short forearm that realized this exploit.  This performance also yielded the 7th place national and indicates the strong drive this guy was riding.

In his bloodlines he was slain to have some upside at the further distances. His father is the Fox that Stefaan once got from his good pigeon friend Eduard Temmerman from Lebbeke. 
Eduard and Stefaan were good (pigeon) friends and regularly raced together. When Eduard had to say goodbye to his pigeons, he told Stefaan to take the Fox with him for breeding. This pigeon flew 1st prize Cahors, 1st prize Montauban and 1st prize Limoges in the club and was a top pigeon.
Another proof that the favor factor in delivering pigeons can play a very big role in success. De Vos already gave several pigeons that could handle the longer distances and now the ultimate proof of his strong genes is delivered with this provincial victory.
The mother of the Blue Valence is a hen of Wilfried van Vossole from Buggenhout. Wilfried excelled a few years back with the 1st national Marseille and looked on no effort to get the best pigeons for the heavy long distance in his breeding loft. Also this hen proved in the past that she could bring strong offspring into the world.
For the first time, Stefaan basketed pigeons for the races from the Rhône Valley and with success. He had 2 pigeons in the basket and national was cashed in with a 7th and a 291st place national. Full score !

Stefaan with pigeon sport as a hobby

Stefaan is 64 years young and lives together with his mother (84 years young) in Buggenhout. Until a few years ago, he also had his daily job at two kilometers from their home.  When he was still working, his mother took care of the pigeons and Stefaan took over this task after his day job.  Here, peace, simplicity and love for pigeon racing drips off the walls.  “We get along well” says mother with a smile around her mouth, and these words say more than enough.
The lofts are beautiful, spic and span and the pigeons are taken care of like kings. For Stefaan, it is his day filling but above all his passion.

Baptized with pigeon milk, it was mainly speed that laced his youth. At the end of the 90s, he systematically switched to the heavy middle-distance and long-distance races.
Also under the impulse of his friends Eduard Temmerman and Wilfried van Vossole and Louis Van Hoorenbeeck, steps were taken for more kilometers.
There are 24 couples of breeders, they started with 28 cocks on widowhood and 100 rings are bought every year for the youngsters. The breeders breed 2 rounds and from the best racers eggs are shifted (the racers are paired for a few days at the start of the season and are allowed to breed for a while).
With the youngsters we try to play the national races for young pigeons to give them enough experience in the big draw. The pigeons that flew Valence had a Melun, Toury and twice Noyon as preparation. The pigeons train twice daily, are fed separately in the nest box and are not shown anything at basketing. They are taken out of the nest box and basketed in order to maintain maximum calmness. 
Johan Vandercruyssen is his medical adviser and the 1-2-3 mixtures of Aidi are used as feed.  Simple, clear, structured...an approach that clearly pays off.
We got some pigeons in our hands and they sat to steal !  The chance that the top flyers will go back to Valence is certainly high and o.i. they have the right condition to fly top again.

It was a fascinating visit with two people who radiate joy by their way of life and their hobby.  The provincial victory Valence is a cherry on a cake they have been baking and tasting for years.  Hopefully this may continue for many years to come !

Congratulations from the Herbot team !

Geert Dhaenens