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Tuesday 14th June 2005. Den Bosch - De GP Le Mans, the biggest competition in the world with 120,000 challenging pigeons.

A real race of the fitest and fastest that at top speeds had to find there way home.

The 2nd place pigeons from the national club where 96,234 were signed up for, had to find there coupe at there well known home and racer Cees Bosua (Dordrecht) 529 kilometers from Le Mans. They both arrived at 14:31 with only 18 seconds between, at speeds of 1135 & 1134 meters per min. ( mpm).

3rd place winner C & G Koopman ( Emerveen ) 705 klm from Le Mans, they arrived at

The netherlands was shared into five regions where a car was the winning prize.

In the region South - West flew 12,880 birds and was the great winning succes for Wout Spierings ( Waalwijk). The man that often stood out at other important flights, was now good for first and second place in his region, with speeds of 1113 and 1104 mpm.

In the region South - East flew 12,805 pigeons and was won by Wil Geudens (Knegsel) with speeds of 1103 mpm.

In this region alone we had :- H. Swanenberg ( Berlicum, 6e) comb. - Wellens ( Heeswijk 7e). - Van de Wetering - Lourensen ( Berghem 8e). - H van de Akker

-Van de Hurk / Dixon ( Schaijk, 13e ). - H. Dekkers (Oss,14e ) - R. van Oss ( Haarsteeg, 17e ) and B. van den Brand ( Boxtel, 19e ).

Limburg also in this region, came away with only five by the first twenty.

Monday 13th june 2005 - Le Mans - The sky was black with 30,000 pigeons.

Dutch keepers on Saturday morning in Le Mans set off pigeons in the biggest race in the world to date. In the running were many keepers from West and Middle Brabant, with one objective - to fly home as fast as possible. Around the half of the 30,000 Dutch entries, raced with more than one pigeon.

It is Saturday 06:45 when the two pigeons from Wout Spierings (Waalwijk) began there long race home. Eight hours later and a 15,00 kilometre flight - aprox. 66 kmph - the birds arrived back to win the prize of a new Citroen for their proud owner.

At National races are also Wouts pigeons to see, with speeds of aprox. 68 kmph.

The combination Embregts - Theunis (Hoeven) were a bit slower. For the keepers from Zeeuwse the wind was not easterly so the birds could'nt fly so quick over the coast line.

Good things came out of the competition in Le Mans, it brought more light onto the Dutch keepers 75 year organisation and new interest for the up and coming generations of pigeon keepers.

One of the queen sport pigeons is Kerkduifie (church pigeon) a female from Dordtse.

Muggie landed a short second behind for her boss and owner K. Bosua with a car and money prize. Kerkduifie is a 2 year old and is often in the prize run up. She had more experience than Muggie, but to her owners surpise Muggie flew extremely fast.

Kerkduifie got her name after her first flight, her colour changed to a brighter shade!!