Eddy and Maarten Leutenez (Kluisbergen) also score on Argenton IV

The ink is figuratively still dry when we announced the very strong performance of this tandem from Kluisbergen on the first flight from Argenton with the youngsters a fortnight ago.
Then they raced the first place in the zone and a lot of beautiful prizes more. Because of the postponement of the first race from Argenton due to the warm weather conditions, the big question was if the double (two weeks in a row to fly Argenton) was feasible or doable ?

The condition is there
The first flight from Argenton was already a bit heavier before the release because the pigeons had to stay one more night in the basket and were only released on Sunday for a flight of about 500 km. In addition, the conditions were heavy with warm temperatures. A windfall was the fact that the wind blew in the favour of the top pigeons, which put the minute speeds of the top pigeons around 1,400 metres per minute. 
But as we all know, it's not the top birds that need to recover the most, but usually the pigeons that fly a bit longer and have more flight hours in their wings, and that arrive later...they need a bit more time to recover.
The pigeons on the Leutenez lofts were in good condition when they arrived at Argenton (the results proved it) and nothing was left to chance to let them recover very well. Good food and some supplements for a quick and good recovery and above all keep them calm was the message.
The training rhythm is not and was not high, but that's not necessary either. The pigeons flew 6 to 7 hours on the flight and with this rhythm, the intermediate trainings don't have to be intense anymore. Rest is of golden value...., they also realise this in Kluisbergen.
After having observed the pigeons and their behaviour, they decided to basket the pigeons again for the next stage in the national races from Argenton III.

Banging with the big K
Taking all the weather maps into account, it would be a race where they would have to work harder than the week before. The middle distance races barely touched 1,200 metres per minute and so Argenton would be a hard, fair but tough race.
Weather the Leutenez pigeons like to work in and also the state of recovery of the previous flight would be very important. This was the main question in the hours before the arrival of the pigeons.
But when the first hen reported in Ruien, it soon became clear that this would again be a strong performance, but even more so with the arrivals that followed. A beautiful line of arrivals was set up and pigeons came flying in with a lot of enthusiasm. The arrivals followed each other like balls on a paternoster and the stress quickly turned into great satisfaction because of the performance of the entire racing team.
It is clear that the pigeons recovered well and that they still had the condition to top a race of 484 km.
This resulted in the following nice results :
- Club : 254 youngsters : 1-2-3-4-6-8-9-12-14-16-17-19-20-22-23-25-26-28-... (39/71).
- Nat. Zone A3 : 2,648 youngsters : 10-16-20-27-34-39-46-105-144-148-154-198-199-203-211-222-258-281-...
- National : 13.393 youngsters : 35-58-74-98-142-173-189-...or no less than 7 pigeons in the top 200 national.

Argenton mon amour

Argenton is for Eddy & Maarten's pigeons a race they like to race. After Oscar's 1st national from Argenton they played 12 times top 200 national on 4 races from Argenton this year.

- Argenton 4-6 : 78th national 18,763b.

- Argenton 18-6 : 80th national 12,938b.

- Argenton 21-08 : 12e-72e-120th national 22,869b.

- Argenton 27-08 : 35e-58e-74e-98e-142e-173e-189e national 13,393b. 

The pedigree of the 4 first pigeons can be seen below. We see again the basic strain (Jose, Bolleken, Milan, etc.....) with the input of the pigeons of Marc Adam, Alain Van Den Driessche, Herbots Gebr, Erik Limbourg,... etc.... 

These are pigeons that can maintain a high speed during quite a lot of kilometers and this also in heavy and hard weather.
The performances of the young team of yearlings, the performances of the youngsters on the national races makes everything very hopeful for the future.
All the best for the next races !

Geert Dhaenens