Limoges II Yearlings

National

  • CLEIRBAUT-GOOVAERTS
  • 02 Jul 2025 00:00
  • 05 Jul 2025 06:40
  • Yearlings

Cleirbaut Alicia & Govaerts Jens (Putte): 1st National Limoges 4,689 yearbirds

"Great Wall"
B24-6163002
1st National Limoges 4,689 yearbirds

Distance: 663km
Velocity: 1,321.86 m/m

 

At the home of Kris Cleirbaut, pigeons are raced under two names. On one hand, Kris himself manages part of the colony, and on the other hand, pigeons are raced under the name of his daughter Alicia and caretaker Jens Goovaerts. And it was precisely Jens who achieved the national victory from Limoges against 4,689 yearling pigeons.

Jens: “Our winner didn’t actually come from the ideal direction. When we saw that Wim De Troy, who lives just 3 km away, clocked a pigeon just over half a minute later, our hopes of holding onto the national win began to fade. For a good half hour, we kept refreshing the ‘arrivals page’ on the KBDB online website… but luckily for us, not a single yearling from Limoges clocked a better time than our blue widower.”

Last Week: Tulle

Together with Jens, we walk to the widowers’ loft while he continues:
“Our widowers see the inside of a travel basket every week. Rest is rust, and last week they had already seen the release point in Limoges. Getting pigeons into form sometimes comes down to adjusting a small detail. In the past, results were disappointing in this loft—until we noticed that sunlight wasn’t reaching inside the nest boxes. The roof was adjusted, the sun could shine into the boxes, and since then the pigeons have been performing much better.

What did we do in terms of care since they came back from Tulle? Honestly—not much special. The day after their return, I already let them train at home. What did we see? The widowers were flying effortlessly for 45 minutes. They flew with real grinta, and when a fancier sees that, the only conclusion is: nothing is wrong, and condition is on point. Normally, our widowers train about half an hour per day.

Despite all the positive signs, we started feeding them up already on Monday—which is something we normally never do.

Oh right... another clear sign of rising form: last week, the widowers dropped their first flight feather. My experience tells me that cock birds need to have dropped their first primary to really reach their top form.”

Preparation

The cocks were first sent to Noyon (not Quievrain), and since it was a tough race, they were not entered the following week. After that, it was off to Soissons, Melun, Montargis, and then a national race every week.

Mr. Great Wall

The national winner is a fantastic pigeon in the hand. Just hours after his arrival, he was ready to be basketed again. Last season, he already showed promise with the following results:

645th Nat. Vierzon, 16,892 pigeons

395th Nat. Argenton, 9,401 pigeons

1,375th Nat. Bourges, 26,549 pigeons

In 2025, he won among others:

179th Nat. Bourges, 17,163 pigeons

On his father’s side, he is a grandson of “Olympic Jan” (1st Olympiad pigeon for Germany, Brussels 2017, and a top breeder at Kris’s loft. “Olympic Jan” produced—over multiple generations—the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th National Ace Pigeons KBDB All-Round and the 9th National Ace Pigeon KBDB Long Distance).

The mother of “Mr. Great Wall” is an original hen from Carl Lambrechts.

Stefan Mertens