Ludo Claessens left the pigeon racing sport on 14th of February 2008 after a theft in this loft. The sport had meant a lot to him, and he had invested a lot in it as well. He taught other people how to keep pigeons, and he once told us he owes a lot to his grandfather Louis Sebrechts, who had shown him how to learn to think as a pigeon.
Many fanciers know what his knowledge, combined with his talents, has enabled him to achieve.
It kind of reminds us of the Dutch football player Johan Cruijff. He was an exceptional player but people were just as impressed with his theories and his ideas about the game. His strategies have made The Netherlands a highly successful team for many years. Johan is being missed for sure.
Ludo kind of accidentally got in touch with the sport again in September 2014 after a long hiatus. He was on a bike ride when he passed along the lofts of the Algarve Golden Race. There was a lot going, as the pigeons were about to return from their final race. Ludo got off his bike and many fanciers recognised him immediately, despite having been away from sport for so long. Among them was Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, who wanted to make sure that Ludo (and Maria) could have a lovely afternoon of pigeon racing.
Ludo Claessens in Portugal
A new challenge
Ludo and Nikolaas stayed in touch occasionally, and Nikolaas, who knows some of the greatest champions of the world, was genuinely impressed with Ludo’s expertise as fancier. He was also suprised to see how many fanciers from China and Taiwan have been successful with Ludo’s pigeons. The Claessens pigeon breed would come to his attention every time he travelled to China and Taiwan, even though Ludo had hardly been selling any pigeons lately. And he could not either, since he was only keeping 60 pigeons during the winter.
Fanciers that know Ludo well would sometimes say: “No one can look into a pigeon, except Ludo Claessens”. In the spring of 2016 Ludo and Nikolaas decided to take on a challenge: Ludo would pick a small team of pigeons from the PIPA Elite Center. In fact, he spent an entire morning in the lofts, and he wanted all the pigeons to stay inside. They were not allowed to go sit in their basket either. He inspected every single pigeon, and he wanted to be left alone as well. After a few hours he came up with a small group of pigeons, which he selected based on intuition, not on pedigrees. These very pigeons would be competing in the Algarve Golden Race.
Five teams of three pigeons each were sent off to Portugal. The Algarve Golden Race had 5427 pigeons at the start line, including 15 racing birds of the Claessens-PEC combination. They spent some time in quarantine and 14 of them were considered fit for the job; they were ready to compete.
Ludo Claessens & Nikolaas Gyselbrecht on a bike trip,
about to cross the Portugal-Spain border
The races
All fourteen pigeons finished in the top 300 at least one time! We take a look at their overall results in the 7 races of 100 tot 505 km:
92 participants: 66 prizes per 3 (or 31 prizes)
40 prizes per 10 (or 9 prizes)
8 prizes per 100 (or 1 prize)
They won their best result in the race from Portalegre (230km), one of the four ace pigeon flights. The 13 Claessens-PEC pigeons have won a 10-16-19-23-28-129-221-… (5 in the top-28)
Ace Pigeons
Their results in the ace pigeon championship are nothing short of impressive, and almost unprecedented in a one loft race! 5427 pigeons took part in this OLR, and the Claeessens-PEC combination had an impressive four pigeons per 100: 4-18-29-48!
It is very difficult to excel in a one loft race, since the fancier does not have any influence on the outcome of the race. Your pigeons are left on their own. One thing is clear after the Algarve Golden Race; the PEC has many talented pigeons in its collection, and Ludo Claessens has managed to pick a great team. It was an impressive debut.
Ludo Claessens (l) with Florea Sorin and Cristiano Paltrinieri
Anecdotes
Ludo impressed us during the final race as well. He and a large group of other fanciers were awaiting the pigeons when he noticed that one of his own pigeons approaching the lofts about 40 metres away. Most fanciers could not believe that he would be able to recognise one of his pigeons from that far away; you could hardly see what colour it had. But as soon as the pigeon entered the loft and passed the clocking device the large screen said “Claessens-PEC”. This happened three times that afternoon; everyone is still talking about it.
Cristiano Paltrinieri, the owner of Wonder Pigeon, competed in the race and he saw it happen as well. This is what he had to say:
Pigeon sport is not different from all other sports.
There are people with great passion, they live for their pigeons, they take care of them like they are their own children or they treat them like pets. On the other hand there are people who only like pigeons for competing against other fanciers and who are solely interested in results. The birds play a less important role.
Then there are fanciers who are in love with pigeon sports. They like every aspect of it, from breeding to racing, and think about pigeons almost every minute. To succeed at the highest level talent is needed, just like in every other sport. You can spend all your time with pigeons but without talent you would only achieve good results and breed good birds from time to time, not every year.
Then there is Ludo Claessens. In these three days I saw and heard things I used to think were unbelievable and impossible for a fancier. You can run fast but only when you see Bolt you understand what speed really is. You can be a good football player but only when you see Maradona handle the ball you understand football. The same goes for other other aspect of life. I have always thought of myself as having talent for pigeons and I haven’t been impressed by others that much. However, in the Algarve for the first time I felt a small fancier when encountering Ludo Claessens and seeing that I would never reach his level of pigeon understandig in my entire life.
In the Algarve, I met and spent some time with Ludo Claessens and I am convinced that you can never beat him in pigeon racing if the weather conditions are normal. So much talent is even too much for a single fancier. It was a true gift witnessing Ludo’s talent. Thank you to my great friend Nikolaas for letting me meet the genius Ludo Claessens. We really had a great time. I just love pigeon racing 🙂
Rui Emidio, the organiser of the Algarve Golden Loft Race, asked for Ludo’s help when he tried to find the fourth ace pigeon of Claessens-PEC among the 2,400 pigeons that had made it back home. Afterwards he sent the following message to Nikolaas:
From left to right: Cristiano Paltrinieri, Ludo Claessens, Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, Florea Sorin
Nikolaas, really unbelievable! I bet with Ludo that he would not find the fourth ace bird (the first of Claessens-PEC, Ed.) between the 2,400 pigeons in the loft unless he would spend the entire day checking all of them. Ludo entered the loft, looked around for about ten minutes and the first pigeon that he picked up was immediately the right one. I can’t believe it! I lost the bet but saw something incredible.