“Evita” of Rik Cools (Ruiselede) is fastest of the province of W-Flanders on Chateauroux national !

Chateauroux national of Saturday, July 4 was after Bourges the second national flight on the heavy middle distance. Again a lot of pigeons were basketed. About 54,000 pigeons were released on Saturday morning. Already days before the start of the race you could read on all kinds of forums who would determine the race and how big the role of the strong south and southwest wind would be in determining the result. It's not abnormal that motivated athletes show their fiercest side when it comes to winning.
It is undeniable that on a race of 500 kilometers on average and such a large team of pigeons, the wind direction determines the national top. Luckily we as humble fanciers don't have any influence on the weather, we can determine a lot ourselves, but, practice... just not yet. So it's exciting for regions to enjoy the advantage, for other regions to limit the national damage.  After a nice and smooth flight, the expectations came true and the top prices are national in Limburg, Flemish Brabant, which was to be expected. But the winner is always right! West and East Flanders had an underdog role to play, but that's why the local and provincial victories taste no less sweet.

With Rik Cools, West Flanders has a subscriber as the winner

Sympathetic Rik from Ruiselede has had a subscription to provincial victories for years.  He has chosen the middle-distance and the heavy middle-distance as his battleground and then you have to judge more on a provincial level than on a national level. And then it may be said, Rik is a real winner. Years ago he was already a pioneer in the widowhood game with the hens and that stays that way.  In addition, Rik is supplier on several lofts of top pigeons and many succeed with the offspring of the strong breeding loft from Ruiselede. He has a very strong own breeding line which contains a lot of Vandenabele blood and which is always supplemented with strong names in this discipline. It's not because you have nothing more to prove that your motivation is less...on the contrary. Last year Rik was still professionally active...and then he said he would like to take care of his pigeons a little bit better but he didn't have the time for it.  Since a few months Rik has the time to take care of his pigeons fulltime and the results show this. Already from the start of the season his team of hens was doing very well.  They easily flew to the head and followed each other neatly. They raised a youngster for the season and train twice a day for 45 minutes. They are fed after the morning training and then go into the aviary until around 16h to train again...and with results. The season started with a 32 hens team. Two became the prey of the bird of prey, one was removed due to mating behaviour and two were lost in the training flights. At the moment there are still 27 present.  They flew Bourges and after the flight another one was absent...the 2nd national ace youngsters half distance KBDB, 1st provincial ace West Flanders 2019.  She came home hours late and was wisely not basketed on Chateauroux but flew an intermediate flight to get her confidence back on zenith. The signals on the preparatory flights were promising and a top ranking was in the pipeline and last Saturday this was confirmed with the provincial victory of yearling hens Evita.

Evita is the fastest in the province

A nicely scooped little hen with a soft plume, a beautiful wing and an awake head gave the whole province a good look. In West Flanders a total of 9,162 pigeons were basketed (3,607 old pigeons and 5,555 years old). Evita gave flying lessons as a yearling and with a minute speed of 1,686.02 m per minute she gave everyone the checking. She comes from the loft of Chris Debacker and flew last year mostly the provincial races on Chateaudun.

The success exchanges with Chris Debacker (Beveren-Leie)

Every year Chris and Rik exchange a number of pigeons. On average these are 35 youngsters. The cocks go to Chris, the hens come to Rik. In recent years, this has resulted in a lot of pigeon fun in the two lofts.  Chris achieved a 1st national with a pigeon from Rik and Rik also achieved several top results with pigeons from Chris. 
Evita, for example, is also an hen that comes from the lofts of Chris from Beveren-Leie. With this victory it was not really a surprise that she could do this because as mentioned on the pedigree she has already won a lot of nice prizes.
With some more nice flights in the coming weeks, a proven basis, a motivated player and pigeons in top form we can expect some nice results from Rik as well as Chris. The competition has been warned.

But this beautiful provincial victory can't be taken away !

Congratulations because of the Herbotsteam !

Geert Dhaenens