Team Hooymans.NL - Wijk en Aalburg: 1st National Issoudun 16,724d.

Let's go back to the weekend of Aug. 10. While in Belgium the well-known national young pigeon race from Bourges was raced, in the Netherlands the national race from Issoudun took place. This flight is the only flight in the Netherlands with a national release, so just like in Belgium, we can speak of a “real” national winner. 

Not surprisingly, all the top Dutch lofts had this race in mind. Whoever wins here enjoys national fame and this national fame was for Team Hooymans.nl from Wijk en Waalburg.
Team Hooymans.nl or in other words Christian van de Wetering is a top fancier. 
Sober in his thinking and actions and with a limited racing team of 20 couples (on total widowhood) and about 50 youngsters, he knows how to amaze the international pigeon world again and again. “Everything stands and falls with good pigeons”...it all sounds so simple but Christian proves it with deeds. Backed by Jan Hooymans and then we have to say no further explanation about the quality of the pigeons. 
Jan: “The winning hen was bred by Christian himself. Every year he rings a pair of youngsters from his better pigeons. The father of the “902” wins no less than 14 x 1/100 and was the 14th best yearling pigeon of the Netherlands in 2022.”

 “902”  

When I wait for pigeons, I turn off my cell phone”, Christian starts his story ”I only had contact with my colleagues in Belgium and from them I knew that the fastest pigeons in Belgium did 1403 m/m. This meant that I had to clock just before 15h and indeed at a speed of 1409 m/m, my blue hen “902” dived towards the race floor.  Still the cell phone was not switched on and I waited a good hour before checking the state of affairs.”

“902” - NL23-9407902 - was played on total widowhood and also won 1st Melun in the ensemble this season. Until Issoudun she went into the basket 16 weekends in a row and last weekend was a compulsory rest week because there was no flight on the program for the old pigeons. The racing team was kept in the normal weekly rhythm in terms of training and feeding times. They are trained once a day and fed twice a day. Christian determines the composition of the feed himself.

Jan Hooymans adds: “It's hard to swallow when you hear that you are the fastest in the Netherlands. The same weekend we also won the national ace pigeon KBDB with Team Hooymans.be and with Team Hooymans.WVL we won no less than 2 provincial victories. I say it again...all in the same weekend. That's what a person does it all for.”

Stefan Mertens