A dream came true the past weekend for the very sympathetic man-wife tandem, Kurt Vergaerde and Anja Denolf from the Westflemish Jabbeke,....a national victory and this on a very hard race out of Agen.
Pigeons are the most important thing for Kurt and Anja. Both Kurt as Anja are passionated by pigeons and go for the full 100% to get beautiful results on the international races. Both work in de social sector with the obliged shift- and weekend work. To be able to combine everything they race everything on nest, both cocks as hens can/have to proove themselves on the international races.

Extreme hot temperatures, ESE-wind, …it promised to be an extremely though weekend…really something for the pigeons from Vergaerde-Denolf. They had 40 pigeons for Agen in mind but they forgot to basket one, so this one was being basketed for Montélimar instead. On Friday it was foggy in Agen, so the pigeons had to stay an extra night in the basket. They were finally realesed on Saturday morning at 6h45…with temperatures that reach already from early in the morning above 30°C, with extreme high temperatures over the entire flight line…as predicted a very though one…In the evening there were about 6 pigeons that reached there loft in France, this just before the border with Belgium…so the 1st Belgian pigeons had to be close. At 6h15'41" and 6h16'36" 2 pigeons were registered at Kurt and Anja…Mother and daughter! A 4-year old and a yearling hen. For the old pigeons this was really head of the race …and the yearling hen was signed 1st at that time…so it was another full hour waiting full tension to see if there were pigeons that got home at a further distance. And what has been written in the stars for several years now came true…'VERGAERDE-DENOLF FROM JABBEKE WINS A 1ST NATIONAL!'

*An ironstrong strain:
In the period 1997 and 2003 the focus was on the long distance game with the young birds, on the races Bordeaux, Royan, Ruffec and Cognac (yearly there were 2 of these races) they won (inter)provincial, semi-national races and every time with chain results. These were mostly pigeons from the tandem Deschacht-Denduyver, a second home for Kurt.
In 2003 they decided to switch to the greater long distance. The pigeons from Deschacht-Denduyver were crossed in with new pigeons, where the crossing with their 'Zoon Nirvana x Jade' (from Jelle Jellema) took care immediately for new successes…and these two strains are still to be found in most of their pigeons.
A third very succesfull strain that entered the loft is from Hendrik Wijnant... also an iron strong strain that seemed to match extremely well with their already existing strain.
We can state that this iron strong strain can go even further on the more heavy races…they can add another 200/300km.

Sometimes they co-breed or exchange something with strong racing fanciers like for example. Jo Ronsijn, Hans De Rijck and Rob Nijs. When something is bought, they look for pigeons with a lot of speed in it, and where the close family won as much as possible (50-60-70-…) first prizes . This works nice with a Huub Herman hen (strain super 015) and a Peter vd Merwe hen (strain Gwen).

*Perparation for the international races:
After the season (after Perpignan) they could breed for the first time last year a couple of youngsters. After that they were being seperated. The pigeons were coupled again on the 3rd of March, to breed another round of youngsters. By the time they were being seperated almost all the hens had a second lay. The pigeons were being tossed this period from Wevelgem, Moeskroen and Templeuve... where they always were being released one by one.

Due to the bad weather in April ( a lot of cold Northern wind) their first races were being delayed. The consiquence is that they only did Clermont twice, then a Chateaudun that was being brought back to the club which made that their schedule was being mixed up even more. Until now the pigeons didn’t get home very well, some had ‘big’ heads…probably the consequence of the missing shape. Due to this bad preparation they couldn’t race Bourges for the first time in years. Everything was being basketed on Tours and Limoges in the weekend of the 1st of June (with a nice result on both races), then they were already seperated again for about 4weeks…this is always an important period to get a good base condition. Everything is being coupled and re-coupled according the program they have to race. Afther the weekend of the 1st of June all of them were coupled again, this is a week later then the former years. In the period after the weekend of Tours/Limoges, and before the 1st international races they were being tossed twice out of Chimay…where they were being released together.
On Pau the result wasn’t what it had to be yet (due to several circumstances only 3 could be basketed on Pau in stead of 6). At the basketing on Agen the pigeons were breeding 10 to 12 days. When Kurt basketed them he didn’t like them 100% yet…when he arrived at the club he hoped that they would look better a bit, but the opposite was true…On Friday evening, the day before they were being released I spoke to Kurt and Anja about it and Kurt already regretted in basketing all those good pigeons (ao. 3 pigeons that won top 10 national last year on Agen or Narbonne), he feared that the forme wasn’t optimal yet..

*Agen 2019:
regional 152 yl.: 1,3,6,7,8,10,13,14,... 16/27 with at the 10th prize 1,2&3 signed.
regional 195 o.: 3,4,10,16,... 6/12
combination Gistel/Vlamertinge 319yl.: 1,3,6,7,8,11,15,18,... 16/27
combination Gistel/Vlamertinge 311o.: 3,4,14,24,... 6/12
national 4664 jl.: 1,33,43,52,93,99,122,184,325,341,360,437,... (according prognoses)
national 3938 o.: 7,9,64,138,240,... (according prognoses)

the above meaning this for the 39 basketed pigeons:
-17 pigeons per 10
-9 pigeons in top-100 national
-3 pigeons in top-10 national
-1st national 4,664 year birds

The hen that wins the 1st national is out of the hen that wins the 7th national and is on her turn a daughter of the 6th national Barcelona + winner Bronze Wing 2018.

For the hen that wins 9th national it wasn’t her first achievement…she won last year 1st Provincial and 2nd national Narbonne. 4 weeks before Agen she also wins the 3rd on Tours against 533 old pigeons and the 29th Provincial against 4,880 pigeons.

*Season 2019:
After the past season 2018 there was no-one who could have thought that they would improve their results…but after Agen there is no-one who doubts this anymore…we didn’t hear the last thing from the tandem Vergaerde-Denolf yet by far. The preparation wasn’t ideal as mentionned above, but nevertherless a nice result was won at the weekend of the 1st of June, especially on Tours.
Especially when you know that it was the 1st time for the year birds that they had to do a race above Paris. So Agen was only their 2nd race above Paris.

01/06 Tours 553o+yl.: 3,9,10,23,30,33,42,46,52,54,55,... 27/52
01/06 Tours 323yl.: 5,6,15,18,21,23,... 23/44

Something we almost forget is the pigeon that was forgotten for Agen and was being basketed on Montélimar, and also this one won a prize per 10…22nd provincial against 228 pigeons, and national 290th against 4,552b.

*A few wonderful results from the past years:
2010: 2 national and international Souston
2011: 8 national and 11 international Narbonne
2012: 8 Belgian championship Vanrobaeys (all
internationals with 1st signed)
2 champion Union Gistel GLD
2013: 8°and 26° national Pau
1° champion Union Gistel greater long distance year birds
2° champion Union Gistel greater long distance old
2014: 7° champion Union Gistel/Fondclub Steenbrugge
zware fond old
7°championUnion Gistel/Fondclub Steenbrugge
zware fond year birds
2015: 2°national and 7° international Barcelona
(1°national series 1+2+3)
3° champion Union Gistel/Fondclub Steenbrugge
international
2016: 6° champion Union Gistel/Fondclub Steenbrugge
international
9° in the 2-year classification Golden Wing
2017: 2° champion Union Gistel/Fondclub Steenbrugge
international
5° in the 3-year classification Golden Wing

2018: 5°and 7° national Agen year birds
6 and 30° national Barcelona (1+2)
Bronze Wing Brugse Barcelona Club
2°and 46° national Narbonne old

*Barcelona:
In 2008 they raced for the 1st time Barcelona as a test…and from 2009 they shined each year again on this ‘Spain-classic’. In those 10 years they clocked no less then 9 times their first signed within the prizes. Underneath the results of the past 10 years on Barcelone in the Long distance club Gistel:
2009: 302b.: 5-6(1)-79 3/3
2010: 352b.: 13(1)-68-98 3/7
2011: 357b.: 23-24-104(1) 3/7
2012: 285b.: 7-10-14(1)-63-74-75 6/9
2013: 251b.: 32-41-47-59-64 5/16
2014: 323b.: 69(1)-93 2/6
2015: 292b.: 2-15(1)-33-46-68 5/6
2016: 258b.: 4-11(1)-17-53 4/5
2017: 371b.: 8-13-38(1)-66 4/9
2018: 152b.: 1(1)-5-7-13-22-28-36-47 8/12



*A few more things nice to know:
-Both at home coming as at basketing for an international race they get a race mixture. In between they get some lighter food, especially with a lot of barley.
-All racing pigeons are being fed together in one food trunk and again seperate in their own box, so they can eat what they need before the basketing for an international race.
- they throw often seed candy in the grass so they don’t go in to the ‘country’ for it.
-After homecoming they always get electrolyttes and amino sours…this for a good recuperation
-The youngsters are being trained and only race short distance races, as a year bird they get their exam on Agen and/or Narbonne (depending on the heaviness of the race). A pigeon that doesn’t win a prize or even only races in the 2nd half of the prizes, doens’t have a lot of change of making it to the racing team of the old birds.
-To stimulate the training for the pigeons on nest, and then especially the hens, they sometimes go out with the young birds…this only at the moments that they really have to train and for example not after a race.
-Behind the garden their is the facility centre of Jabbeke, where you can find a big pond…it happens that they go their to drink. It is a nice learning process, this is how they learn to drink when they come from the far South

*the end:
Kurt and Anja, 2 very sympathetic people that live for their hobby 100%, a hobby which gave them a lot of friends.
Two people that are very pleased when they can give something out of their top pigeons to their friends and that have as much joy when their friends also win top prizes with their strain….
A dream came true the past weekend, namely winning a national race..
In the meantime they have a new dream…and this is winning national Barcelona.
Again a big congratulation and hopefully your new dream can come true as well !

B18-3049702
1st National Agen 4,664 yearbirds

B15-3064634
7th National Agen 3,938 old birds

B15-3064660
9th National Agen 3,938 old birds