Nobus Leon & Jan: 1 Nationale Limoges 10.381 vieux

"Blue Rainbow"
B20-3035698

1 NATIONAL LIMOGES 10.381 VIEUX
Distance: 661km
Vitesse: 1,129.27 m/m

It is another pleasant trip, to Knokke-Heist in bright sunshine and this to go and visit the national winner of the opening classic in the long distance, traditionally Limoges.
The sun is shining inland...and also on the coast, it is hot inland....but not on the coast. With the northeast wind blowing constantly for weeks now, the weather is dry and warm inland but chilly and thin on the coast.
None of this prevents Jan Nobus from welcoming us with a smile from ear to ear at his home in Heist.
Dura lex, sed lex
The opening classic long-distance race Limoges has raised a lot of pigeon dust in the pigeon world and by extension in the media. It is becoming holiday time, cucumber time and then any kind of sensation is welcome to fill a few columns in the newspaper or on social media. A winner without a ring causes quite a stir. The law is the law and the law is harsh, but fortunately in our democratic system, this pillar of our society remains intact and laws and rules are respected.
Fairly shortly after the arrivals of the pigeons and when the dust had settled in Desselgem, Jan Nobus' little beautiful blue cock was declared the national winner. Hooray, three cheers for this excellent performance. As a reward this blue winner was renamed Blue Rainbow in a small baptismal ritual! The alleged winner and the real winner sportingly congratulated each other as befits sportsmen.


 Limoges was a cracker
Every year in the pre-season there is something in the world of pigeon fanciers. The birds of prey plague the racing crews during their first rounds, then again a rain zone that hung over our country for a few weeks threw a spanner in the works of the start-up races and then suddenly the wind turns to the north-east and chisels there. As a result, many pigeons had little or very difficult training and the racing rhythm was clearly not there yet...
But the days pass and the race programme announces itself. And as they say in the skippers' world "we have to sail".
Limoges, like the weeks before, announced itself as a hard flight. Lots of sunshine and a hard blowing northeast wind. Pleasant temperatures inland but invariably 5 degrees colder on the coast. The top would be played by pigeons in condition and pigeons with mordant daring to fight a partial head-side wind. Working and correcting, for hours....
The pigeons were released at 7am and were able to fly all day in clear weather. It was to be expected that the head would fall in East or West Flanders. That is also where the first high speeds arrived.
Jan Nobus' powerhouse arrived with a lot of panache at 16.45h in Heist and flew at an average speed of 1,129 metres per minute and won the 1st prize nationally against 10,381 participating pigeons. What an achievement !


 Who is Jan Nobus ?
Jan Nobus is a very pleasant, engaging resident of Knokke-Heist (born and raised there) of 54 years young. A painter by profession and employed by the Knokke-Heist services, he talks with great pride and passion about his profession as a painter, but talks with even more passion about his hobbies, namely pigeons and ballroom dancing. Many ladies of pigeon fanciers will probably heave a sigh and say "oef, eindelijk een duivenspeler die kan dansen"...because indeed few parties in the pigeon world are spiced up with some display of beautiful dancing, rather than talking for hours about pairing, weaning, training etc....
Together with his partner Nele, he can fully indulge in style on the dance floor...and finds great pleasure in pigeon racing.  The fancier with the small basket, proving once again that one pigeon is enough to take the highest step on the stage.
Jan has had his own home in Heist, 200 metres from the sea, since 1999. First pigeons were kept in garage boxes in the neighbourhood, later neat and functional lofts were installed in the garden. In the past (competing together with his father), they mainly excelled at speed and middle-distance.
It is also not so simple to get a national fancier when you live in Knokke, "the corner of Flanders" as they say. There are two major borders within a short distance, namely the sea and 7 km away, the Netherlands.  Hence, in the past, long speed and middle distance were played against rather local and regional competition.  If one lives there it is up or down on national flights. You are "rarely in the gutter" there as they say. In westerly winds the ambition is to place a pigeon in the first 500 nationally, but if it is easterly or north-east then a top can be expected with ambition.

Let's go long distance

Five years back, Jan conceived the plan to play a little further and to aim his arrows at long-distance racing. He suspected that he could not do this with the same pigeons (a base of pigeons from De Groote Medard, mainly half long-distance pigeons). He put his trust in the pigeons of Wim Boddaert (the widely praised former tandem Vandamme - Bodaert and currently Hok Boddaert) of which everyone knows that this breeding loft is full of quality.  And with Wim, he was served very well. A hen from Wilfried Rotsaert supplies good pigeons and more recently Yvan Haelters from Maarkedal and Hendrik Mortier from Bruges and Lucien Pauwels from Loppem. From these pigeons, Jan is slowly but surely forging a strong racing team that competes with the top of the country in long-distance races.
Do not think you will find an abundance of pigeons in the loft, on the contrary. 7 to 8 breeding couples, 27 racers (1/3 old, 2/3 yearlings) and 50 youngsters. Manageable, well-organised hobby. 
The racers were also "somewhat" darkened at the beginning of the season to temper the forme somewhat, youngsters are also ringed from the racers and there is no focus on championships. Flight after flight is evaluated and adjusted if necessary. At the end of the race, the balance can be made and if the results are good, the championships will follow.
Before the pigeons go to the long distance races, we try to get two races in the heavy middle distance as an induction rhythm. Already there, Blue Rainbow showed its talent with a local victory on Chateauroux.
In grooming, Jan leaves little to chance, without exaggerating. In season is full focus. Bonduelle feed is fed and the racers are raised on Versele feed and Vanrobaeys energy. Health is checked with Wim Boddaert and intervened when advised by Wim. Furthermore, Naturamine is fed regularly and the breeding pigeons are invariably fed finely chopped carrots. Proof once again that sticking to a well thought-out strategy can lead to great results.


Blue Rainbow gave everyone the slip
BE-3035698 is the "national number" of the national winner Limoges. He was proudly called Blue Rainbow. And he is worthy of his name. It is a beautiful blue cock, rather a smaller pigeon, but well made and a wringer. A "werkerke", as we would sometimes call such a type of pigeon.
It is a direct pigeon of Wim Boddaert and so Jan also sways a lot of praise to Wim for very good handling. 
His father is Wim Boddaert's Rainbow from the Rapido line of Van Damme-Bodaert, line Blauwe Raket with the Olympic white-tail of Luc Van Hoecke. His mother is Nicoletta and is a co-breeding of Dobbelaere-Vincke with Wim Boddaert (from the line Double Ace by Dobbelaere-Vincke) x Blauwke Schoors by Schoors-Dewaele from Adegem.

He was played on traditional widowhood, received only his nest dish at basketing and flew 1st national on a rock hard Limoges.
Also in the current season, he already flew 1st Chateauroux in the club from 443d and 44th provincial from 5,076 pigeons. So it was anything but a surprise that he pulled off the national win.
A beautiful and well-deserved winner !
 

Not just Blue Rainbow....
It is not a one-dayer that has landed at Jan's place. The colony is limited but the quality is undoubtedly there. Apart from the latest discovery Blue Rainbow, there are also clappers such as Lucky Gambrinus and Leon that put Jan on the national scoreboards. As visible on the pedigrees are pigeons that can handle the heavy work and manage to score top nationally in a very difficult position. With such a base, we can expect fireworks by the sea in the future.

It was worth the drive to Heist, the visit to Jan. Pigeon racing at its best was experienced here. A real passionate hobbyist, who leaves nothing to chance, who does his utmost to take optimal care of his pigeons and to bring them to the start in top condition, and who sees his hobby as an ideal outlet in combination with his job and his other loves in life.
Congratulations from the Herbot team !
Geert Dhaenens